God Against the gods: Storytelling, Imagination and Apologetics in the Bible

Book Synopsis: How God Captures the ImaginationBrian Godawa, Hollywood screenwriter and best-selling novelist, explores the nature of imagination in the Bible and how it relates to apologetics and evangelism. He explains how God subverts pagan religions by appropriating their imagery and creativity and redeeming them within a Biblical worldview. Improve your imagination in glorifying God and defending the faith. You will discover what C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Francis Schaeffer understood about Christian apologetics and Biblical evangelism. Here are the Chapters and what you will learn: Demonizing the Pagan Gods God verbally attacked his opponents, pagans and their gods, by using sarcasm, mockery and name-calling. Demonization is not wrong if they really are demonic. Old Testament Storytelling Apologetics Israel shared creative images with their pagan neighbors: The sea dragon of chaos, and the storm god. The Bible invests them with new meaning. Biblical Creation and Storytelling Creation stories in the ancient Near East and the Bible both express a primeval battle to create order out of chaos. But how do they differ? The Universe in Ancient Imagination A comparison and contrast of the Biblical picture of the universe with the ancient pagan one. What’s the difference? New Testament Storytelling Apologetics Paul’s sermon to the pagans on Mars Hill was subversive storytelling: Retelling society’s narrative through a Gospel lens. Imagination in Prophecy and Apocalypse How God uses symbolism to both obscure and reveal meaning in prophecy. An Apologetic of Biblical Horror Learn how God uses the genre of horror in the Bible as a powerful moral tool to communicate spiritual, social and moral truth.