Unexpected Light: Theology and Witness in the Poetry of Charles Williams Micheal O'Siadhail and Geoffrey Hill: Theology and Witness in the Poetry and ... Micheal O'Siadhail and Geoffrey Hill - Softcover

Mahan David C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0227173368 ISBN 13: 9780227173367

Publisher: James Clarke and Co Ltd, 2010

Synopsis

A growing number of professional theologians today seek to push theological inquiry beyond the relative seclusion of academic specialization into a broader marketplace of public ideas, and to recast the theological task as an integrative discipline, wholly engaged with the issues and sensibilities of the age. Accordingly, such scholars seek to draw upon and engage the insights and practices of a variety of cultural resources, including those of the arts, in their theological projects. Arguing that poetry can be a form of theological discourse, Mahan shows how poetry offers rich theological resources and instruction for the Christian church. In drawing attention to the 'peculiar advantages' it affords, this book addresses one of the greatest challenges facing the church today: the difficulty of effectively communicating the Christian gospel with increasingly disaffected 'late-modern' people. An interdisciplinary work revealing the rich theological resources and instruction that poetry offers to the Christian church.

About this title

Review:

"With acute sensitivity and painstaking attention to literary detail, the author shows how Christian wisdom is hugely enriched by three major word-crafters. Far from muddying the waters of theological rigor, 'poetic performance' renders theology more precise, lucid, and faithful. An immensely important book, demonstrating just how badly the theologian needs the artist today." Jeremy Begbie, Thomas A. Langford Research Professor of Theology, Duke University "David Mahan is a superb close reader of poetry and also a rich theological thinker. This book shows how poetry and theology can come together to light up the great questions of human life today. Above all, his profound engagement with three fascinating poets - O'Siadhail, Williams, and Hill - will expand the circle of those who recognize their great significance for the twenty-first century" David F. Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge "David Mahan sheds 'unexpected light' on poetry as a Christian discourse. He does this by deftly elucidating common intellectual ground shared by poets and theologians. Where he shines, however, is in showing how a poem means, how ideas actually become incarnate in texts. Mahan offers beautifully lucid analysis of demanding poets who, in his sure hands, become accessible, though never merely easy. He challenges us to see their work as not only speaking to our particular historical condition but, in quirky and reticent ways, as evangelizing our imaginations." Peter Hawkins, Professor of Religion and Director of Luce Program in Scripture and the Literary Arts, Boston University "An Unexpected Light comes highly commended by prominent scholars in the literature and theology field - we have cause to celebrate the remarkable explicatory gifts on display here, and to thank the author for inspiring us to discover or to appreciate anew three poets of rare significance." Robert Rhys, The Glass --The Glass, Number 20, Spring 2011

An Unexpected Light comes highly commended by prominent scholars in the literature and theology field. [...] ... we have cause to celebrate the remarkable explicatory gifts on display here, and to thank the author for inspiring us to discover or to appreciate anew three poets of rare significance. --Robert Rhys, The Glass, Number 23, Spring 2011

... Mahan s aim to persuade Christians of the contribution contemporary imaginative writing can make to theological discourse is an entirely laudable one. --Robert Rhys, The Glass, Number 23, Spring 2011

About the Author:

D. Stephen Long is Professor of Systematic Theology at Marquette University. amongst his ricent publications are 'Tragedy, Tradition, Transformism' (2007), 'The Goodness of God' (2008). Forthcoming from James Clarke & Co in Autumn 2010 is his 'Sovereighnty of God Debate'.

About this edition

• Publisher: James Clarke and Co Ltd
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0227173368
• ISBN 13: 9780227173367
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246