72 - Magic, Myths, and Imagination as Tools of Resistance with Dr. Sorina Higgins.

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Mortality on the forehead. Stories in the bones. That’s the current we ride as we swap ash-streaked reflections, step behind the scenes of a first Ash Wednesday service, and welcome Dr. Sorina Higgins—editor, teacher, and scholar of the Inklings—into a wide-open conversation about imagination, power, and the words we use on each other.

We start with the tactile: making ashes from last year’s palms, the awkward tenderness of tracing a cross on a child, and the pastoral decision to preach less and shepherd more. From there, Sorins reframes C. S. Lewis’s “space trilogy” as the Ransom Cycle, where adventure asks real questions: What would an unfallen world look like? What’s the role of science and marriage in a dystopia? How do we name “the heavens” without reducing them to empty space? Along the way we meet Tolkien, Barfield, and Charles Williams, and we learn how their fellowship made room for difference while insisting on beauty, goodness, and truth.

Imagination isn’t child's play; it’s a tool of resistance. Sorina maps the ancient debate over images in prayer, showing how sanctified imagination can serve truth. She also draws a bright line between symbolic “magic” in fantasy—think Aslan’s breath as a sign of the Spirit—and real occult practice. Then we turn to today’s landscape: the strange overlap between spirituality and politics, the speed at which online disagreement becomes dehumanization, and what her podcast, Words Do Things, has taught her about persuasion, pluralism, and patience. The hardest charge lands at the pulpit: Pastor's Are the Problem. We sketch another way—cross-shaped leadership that welcomes those we fear, forms people who can bear difference, and trusts beauty to do its quiet work.

We close with a sonnet and an invitation to keep learning. If this conversation stirred you—if you want a church where ash, story, and courage belong together—follow, share, and leave a review. What story is shaping your faith right now?

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If this conversation helps you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your support helps more people find thoughtful, grounded faith in a loud, fearful world.

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