Imagination in Catholic Thought and Peacebuilding

Abstract

Some authors argue that current Western cultures suffer from a closed imagination, i.e., one caught up in itself, incapable of conceiving the world differently; but what would an exploration of the imaginative structure of Catholic thought reveal? How can contemporary approaches to the imagination improve our understanding of Catholic peacebuilding and the Social Teaching from which it develops? I begin by offering a general sketch of peacebuilding and Catholic social teaching, highlighting their efforts as transformative procedures and fundamentally imaginative endeavors, i.e., processes strongly relying on the imagination. Considering this, I then revisit contemporary understandings of the imagination and the cultural role of social imaginaries. I end by suggesting that an awareness of these presents Catholic social teaching with opportunities to grow and adapt, whilst enriching our approach to Catholic peacebuilding.