Theopoetic: Theology and the Religious Imagination

Many today have difficulty in relating to religious language. This can happen when we reduce religious meaning to a specific kind of spiritual experience or give undue importance to one aspect of human life. The reduction of life to human will or intellect is often accompanied by the turn to mystical practices and cults.Amos Wilder calls for a renewal of our deep religious imagination as we reflect on biblical faith and on the basic needs and longings of contemporary persons. This requires a new appreciation for mystery and for deep speaking to deep. Wilder assumes that the depths of biblical truth have scarcely begun to be plumbed and have untapped power to renew life even in our technological Western societies. This requires that we go beyond the objective, surface meaning to the deeper orientation: Before the message, the vision;before the sermon, the hymn;before the prose, the poem.–Amos WilderChapter titles: 1.Theology and Theopoetic2.The Recovery of the Sacred3.Contemporary Mythologies and Theological Renewal4.Traditional Pieties and the Religious Imagination5.Ecstasy, Imagination, and Insight6.Theopoetic and MythopoeticSparks of wit and insight make Theopoetic a notable monument to the ongoing vitality of Wilder's lifelong determination to remain faithful both to the biblical witness and the imperatives of the imagination. — Journal of the American Academy of ReligionThis is a wise and unpretentious book. . .it offers no fancy programs or catchy formulas. Its prescription for our spiritual illness, far from being some esoteric pilgrimage, is the long and unspectacular remedy of developing spiritual health. — The Christian CenturyFor most of his career, Amos Niven Wilder taught at Harvard Divinity School. A former president of the Society of Biblical Literature, his books remain influential in bringing together the disciplines of biblical studies, theology, literature, and mythical imagination.