Imagination, Myth, and Applicability: Value Formation in Post-Secular Education
Imagination, Myth, and Applicability: Value Formation in Post-Secular Education

Summary/Abstract: In post-secular and pluralist educational contexts, value formation risks either normative imposition or pedagogical withdrawal. This paper argues that imagination and myth provide a non-coercive framework for ethical and existential formation. Through a conceptual–hermeneutical engagement with J.R.R. Tolkien’s distinction between allegory and applicability, it shows how mythic narratives disclose meaning symbolically while preserving interpretive freedom. Applicability is proposed as a pedagogical orientation that enables openness to transcendence without presupposing shared metaphysical commitments, thereby reconfiguring the educator’s role as steward of interpretive space rather than as a transmitter of values.

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