The Transformative Power of Metaphor August 25, 2016 By Collegeville Institute Leave a Comment 2016 writing workshop The Transformative Power of Metaphor participants (left to right): Isaac Villegas, Laura Hudson, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Dave Nantais, Catherine Lee, Sara Spohr, Ajung Sojwal, Mary Nilsen (workshop facilitator), Scott Cartwright, Becky Poe, Alexandra Grese, Barbara Rossing How do you describe love? A heavy blanket? A limitless ocean? A fiery, burning sun? Metaphor is the key to conveying abstract concepts, such as purpose or meaning, sin or grace, or the ultimate abstraction—God. Last week, a group of pastors, chaplains, pastoral associates, and others met at the Collegeville Institute for The Transformative Power of Metaphor: A Week with Mary Nilsen — our last summer writing workshop of 2016. As a group, these writers explored controlling metaphor, complete metaphor, braided metaphor and extended metaphor under the guidance of Mary Nilsen. When participants reflected on Mary Nilsen’s facilitation, one remarked: “Mary is terrific! She was “straight” with us about the realities of the writing world and in our workshop times without ever being harsh… I would not hesitate to take a workshop from her again if I had the opportunity.” A pastor who took the workshop is implementing lessons learned. She wrote: “I already used several insights from this workshop in my weekly meeting with other pastors today as we looked at imagery in lectionary texts together. I shared with them the idea that human beings receive transformational insights in metaphor form; in order to change minds and hearts, we must help people learn new metaphors.” Like this post? Subscribe to have new posts sent to you by email the same day they are posted.
