What is the role of imagination in matters of ultimate concern? This is one of the top issues in the spiritual life and certainly in religion: many religious and even spiritual people are suspicious of the imagination. They are afraid that speaking of metaphor, story, poetics, and image takes something important away from the essential focus of their lives. They believe that fact is more important than insight, values, or understanding. They want to know where Noah’s Ark landed, not what it represents.And yet, the religious traditions are mainly stories. The Gospels tell story after story about Jesus’ activities, and then relate story after story that he himself tells. At one point he says plainly: “I speak in parables.” That is to say that Jesus is the most ardent champion of the imagination. Zen Buddhism, like Buddhism in general, is also full of stories. The Sufis tell hundreds of stories about their favorite foolish character, Nasrudin. And these stories take you to a place of spiritual discovery.In 18th-century England, when the industrial revolution was under way, the poet William Blake tried in h …