The Center for Prophetic Imagination works to subvert the existing social order through deep discernment culminating with creative action.
In the tradition of the prophets, we long for a world where all walls of alienation are torn down and we all live justly with one another, with the land, and with the spirit of liberation.
Towards this end, our work weaves together experimental education, contemplative practice, and creative social action, driven by these deep convictions:
1. Wherever this spirit of liberation stirs, they subvert the oppressive social order and nurture collective and personal liberation.
2. The spirit stirs among movements for liberation. This includes (but is not limited to) the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, the jubilee ministry of Jesus, peasant movements throughout history, abolitionist movements (from anti-slavery movements in the antebellum south to modern resistance to the carceral system), anti-colonial resistance, the queer movement, and many others.
3. The spirit of liberation continues to stir among us to subvert systems of death, deprivation, and destruction, opening transformative possibilities where there would otherwise be none.
4. Through the practice and posture of discernment, we notice the ways the spirit opens new possibilities for subversive action.
5. The deep discernment to which we are called can only be found by sharing in the lived experiences of those experiencing marginalization and oppression—including but not limited to those who are Black, indigenous, people of color, queer, trans, femme, gender expansive, Muslim, pagan, neurodivergent, formerly and currently incarcerated, cash poor and working class, disabled, undocumented, immigrant…
6. Our struggle against oppression is both outward and inward. We confront not only the institutions, systems and structures that control and constrain our material lives, but also the myths, beliefs, and ideas that shape and bind our imaginations.
7. The spirit invites us to discern and to act. In this we join the great prophetic vocation: to expose and confront forces of oppression, marginalization, and alienation as we nurture collective liberation.
8. This work is a struggle, but there is joy in the struggle. In solidarity, we find community. In discernment, we experience the spirit of liberation. As our praxis deepens, our prophetic imagination grows to show us a new world is possible.
9. Liberation cannot come through self-negation. The spirit invites us to bring our full selves and our deepening creative capacity into the work of co-creating the new world.