Using Imagination in Teaching Christian Doctrine in Religious Education

Drawing on the insights of John Henry Newman, Sandra Schneiders, and William Lynch, this article explores how imagination can address three common weaknesses in teaching Christian doctrine: faith reduced to abstract notional propositions, doctrines presented as disconnected from Scripture and Tradition, and faith flattened into fragmented, one-sided teaching. The author proposes three corresponding principles—loving knowledge, reality, and integration—to show how religious imagination can make doctrine personally real, ground it in Scripture and living Tradition, and reconcile its paradoxical qualities. Attentive to today's "digital native" students, the article argues that engaging imagination in religious education transforms doctrine from rote memorization into a life-giving, integrated experience of faith suited to a hyper-connected generation.