Why did God give man an imagination? This is a two-part question.

First: Throughout the Old Testament we read of the “imagination of the heart” and in Genesis 6:5 “imagination of the thoughts of the heart”.  

In an earlier question “curiosity” was singled out and I wonder if there are any historical Church teachings that link the imagination of the heart with Holy curiosity?

Secondly: Are their any Christian teachings as to why God gave man an imagination?
A key verse in regard to the imagination is 2 Corinthians 10:5”:


  “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”


The imagination allows us to see what is physically unseeable.  The imagination is to be given to truth (Christ) not to the Father of lies (Satan). 


  Mark 8:17,18 …have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?


In contrast the imagination has been so overrun with un-truth that we associate the imagination with fiction.  We tell our children “you were just imagining that” and believe an overactive imagination is to blame.  God equipped man with an imagination so that man might be able to see things of eternal substance, in order to comprehend His eternal reality.  

The truth in our imaginations are critical to our relationship with God; the problem is our imaginations have become slums neglected and ignored because we have convinced ourselves that it is the residence of superstition.

Most of the soul’s battlefield is within the imagination of the heart.  


  1 Chronicles 29:18 “O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee”