# Invisible Companions: Encounters with Imaginary Friends, Gods, Ancestors, and Angels - Hardcover

by **J. Bradley Wigger** (Author)

From the US to Nepal, author J. Bradley Wigger travels five countries on three continents to hear children describe their invisible friends--one-hundred-year-old robins and blue dogs, dinosaurs and teapots, pretend families and shape-shifting aliens--companions springing from the deep well of childhood imagination. Drawing on these interviews, as well as a new wave of developmental research, he finds a fluid and flexible quality to the imaginative mind that is central to learning, co-operation, and paradoxically, to real-world rationality. Yet Wigger steps beyond psychological territory to explore the religious significance of the kind of mind that develops relationships with invisible beings. Alongside Cinderella the blue dog, Quack-Quack the duck, and Dino the dinosaur are angels, ancestors, spirits, and gods. What he uncovers is a profound capacity in the religious imagination to see through the surface of reality to more than meets the eye. Punctuated throughout by children's colorful drawings of their see-through interlocutors, the book is highly engaging and alternately endearing, moving, and humorous. Not just for parents or for those who work with children, _Invisible Companions_ will appeal to anyone interested in our mind's creative and spiritual possibilities.

### Author Biography

**J. Bradley Wigger** teaches religious education and childhood studies at Louisville Seminary. An ordained Presbyterian minister and a recent Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology, Dr. Wigger has served churches in Colorado, Wisconsin, and Mexico. His most recent publications are the picture book for children, _Thank You, God_ (2014), and _Original Knowing: How Religion, Science, and the Human Mind Point to the Irreducible Depth of Life_ (2012).

**Number of Pages:** 256

**Dimensions:** 1.1 x 9.3 x 6 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** July 23, 2019

## Details

- **Price:** 28.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 28.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Invisible Companions: Encounters with Imaginary Friends, Gods, Ancestors, and Angels - Hardcover

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