Date: 2012-04-23 12:28 am (UTC)
steorra: A cross that looks like a star, or vice versa. (christianity)
From: [personal profile] steorra
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, to which I belong, people are generally cautioned against creating imaginative experiences of God, because it is too easy to imagine ourselves into a false conception of God and to delude ourselves with something that is not reality. We definitely believe in knowing God by direct knowledge, but do not consider imagining his presence a good way to get there.

(Although I think the relationship of Eastern Orthodoxy to imagination and spirituality is more complex than just "imagination is not a good spiritual tool". We sing hymns that are elaborations on events that we commemorate, and surely there is imagination involved in that. I do not know enough to differentiate between when we'd say that imagination in a spiritual context is good and when not.)
Edited (Added further thoughts) Date: 2012-04-23 12:32 am (UTC)

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