Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 39:2 (Spring 2025)
Article: Re-Oranting The Church: Metaphor And The Erasure Of Image-Bearing
Author: Daniel Schwabauer

PP 39:2 (Spring 2025) p. 15

Re-Oranting The Church: Metaphor And The Erasure Of Image-Bearing

Daniel Schwabauer

Daniel Schwabauer, ThD, teaches English at MidAmerica Nazarene University and writes award-winning fantasy and science fiction. He earned an MA in creative writing under science fiction legend James Gunn and completed his doctoral work in semiotic theology with Leonard Sweet. He lives in Olathe, Kansas, with his wife and dogs.

One of the more subtle consequences of the Reformation is the way iconoclasm shaped our ability to recognize the metaphors of Scripture. Protestants in the Western church are often not very good at thinking in images, preferring instead the conceptual logic of texts and tending to ignore the implicit. This in turn can lead to being blind to interpretive possibilities suggested by biblical imagery.

To understand what I mean, consider first this line from Shakespeare’s Othello: “Put out the light, and then put out the light.”1

This may be the most disturbing bit of dialogue in the play. It works because the simple repetition of four common words conveys two very distinct meanings, one literal and the other metaphorical: first Othello will snuff out the candle in his bedroom, then he’ll strangle Desdemona in bed. These two meanings are completely transparent to the audience, which is what makes the ensuing action so packed with tension. We see the killing coming, but we’re powerless to stop it. The literal and metaphorical meanings work together to advance the story.

This is also how we process life. We use metaphors every day, often unconsciously, to understand the world and each other. Metaphors work by joining distinct things that don’t at first seem to be connected. They aren’t similes. They don’t say that one thing is like another. Metaphors claim that one thing is another thing—and usually a very different sort of thing. A man’s home is his castle. Time is money. Life is a roller coaster.

Metaphors are useful because they help us understand realities that aren’t obvious by filtering them through the characteristics and nuances of something else. In writing, “his fists were clubs,” for instance, an author can import the violence and cruelty of a blunt weapon into the personality of a character. The result is not just a physical description of strength, but the invisible aspects of brutality and domination that are overlaid onto the character’s humanity.

In other words, metaphor is a powerful way of conveying depth through association, and in particular the association of imagery. This is why I believe our Protestant heritage of iconoclasm, or image-b...