Ken Powe

VISIONS & DREAMS...

 

Everyone dreams.  Not everyone has visions.  There is necessarily a crucial psychological or spiritual difference between the visionary and the dreamer, but what is it?  If visions and dreams are truly divine experiences, who does God choose to be the dreamer and the visionary?  There is an overwhelming abundance of opinions on this issue.  The answer to these and other deeply significant questions in religious faith lies in what is believed and who God is perceived to be.

 

In the absence of one definitive answer, we, as humans, have endeavored to provide answers to these questions--through theology as well as science!  Since the birth of modern psychology, medical science has posited and accepted that there is meaning and a source behind our dreams and visions, but is God that source?  Some scientists have already determined through research and experimentation that dreams and visions have a possible divine origin!

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Mainstream Christian and Jewish theology agrees with modern psychology that dreams are largely symbolic and require careful and contextual interpretation to arrive at their meanings.  Regardless, people have often throughout history interpreted dreams for themselves and sought to use their perceived divine experiences to make broad and lasting societal changes like start religious movements or take over whole governments.  The modern phenomena of divine visions and dreams may or may not be real, but society's belief in them still have significant power.  What are the anthropological and theological implications of the visions and dreams we have today?  The answers may be in this book.