Tolkien talked about “subcreation” - this thing we do when we take something God has made and create with it. When we try to make creation about ourselves—our pride, our desire for affirmation, and so on—we only make things harder. But when we understand it properly, our subcreation is a middle act between God’s first creation and His second—and the culture we build together becomes, as Andy Crouch put it, part of “the furniture of eternity.” In this chapter of our series, we’ll explore this second of three aspects of our creative task as humans (cultivation, subcreation, and naming).

Each month during our 2022 “Why We Create” series, we will explore one theme within the overall topic; with teaching in the form of essays, with stories that expand our imaginations to encounter this part of God’s truth, and with a dialogue of subsequent conversations and art. To browse the continuing series, visit its homepage here.

Start here: this month’s introductory essay

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This month’s teaching, stories, and conversation

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Thin Spaces
Thin Spaces

Evangeline, Mandy, and Christina sit down at the digital pub table to talk about thin places: what are they, how do we experience them, and should seek out the experiences of thin places?

Fantasy Pub Table Draft 
Fantasy Pub Table Draft 

From a line-up of 20 literary characters curated by Matt Mellema four guests compete before a live audience to draft the perfect pub table for a night of stimulating and imaginative conversation.