What is the role of spiritual experience in poetry? What are the marks of a religious imagination? How close can the secular and the religious be brought together? How do poetic imagination and religious beliefs interact? Exploring such questions through the concept of the religious imagination, this book integrates interdisciplinary research in the area of poetry on the one hand, and theology, philosophy and Christian spirituality on the other. Established theologians, philosophers, literary critics and creative writers explain, by way of contemporary and historical examples, the primary role of the religious imagination in the writing as well as in the reading of poetry.
'A fine collection of essays by young and established scholars, which asks some crucial questions: What is the relationship between theology and poetry? Faith and imagination? Devotion and art? It will help to open up a long-neglected, but absolutely vital field of intellectual investigation. Greatly to be welcomed.' Angela Leighton, Trinity College, Cambridge 'For the authors in this rich volume, poetry is not merely an artful form of discourse; it exemplifies a way of thinking. Poetic imagination underlies and overlaps with the mind's quest for the metaphysical and the religious. In a mixture of theoretical considerations and case studies, these essays offer a valuable summary of the state of the question of the relation of theology and literature, and they provide enticing and often delightful insights into different styles of poetic imagination as it opens on to the transcendent.' Richard Viladesau, Fordham University, USA 'This collection of essays has an impressive range, with contributions on Aquinas and Dante from one historical period, on Constable and Shakespeare from another, and on Eliot, Levertov, Rilke and Wallace Stevens from nearer our own times. The result might have been indigestible but in fact the work is full of rich insights, helped not least by the editors' decision to arrange the material by theme rather than chronologically, and also by commissioning two splendid introductory essays that provide the broader context for such discussions in twentieth century literary theory and theology.' David Brown, ITIA (the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts), University of St Andrews, UK
