God and the Creative Imagination: Metaphor, Symbol and Myth in Religion and Theology

by Avis,Paul

• ISBN13: 9780415215039
• ISBN10: 041521503X
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1999-10-05
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

A mere metaphor, only symbolic, just a myth--these tell tale phrases reveal how figurative language has been cheapened and devalued in our modern and postmodern culture. InGod and the Creative Imagination,Paul Avis argues the contrary: metaphor, symbol and myth are the key to a real knowledge of God and the sacred. Avis examines what he calls an alternative tradition, stemming from the Romantic poets William Blake and John Keats, drawing on the thought of John Henry Newman, and experience in both modern philosophy and science. He intriguingly draws on a number of non-theological disciplines, from literature to philosophy, to show us that God is appropriately likened to an artist or poet and that the greatest truths are expressed in an imaginative form.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
List of abbreviations	x
PART I
Speaking of God in the language of the imagination	3	(11)
The fate of the imagination in modernity	14	(9)
The fate of the imagination in postmodernity	23	(7)
Affirming the truth of imagination: The alternative tradition	30	(19)
PART II
The world of biblical imagination	49	(19)
Creative theology and the making of doctrine	68	(10)
Imagination and the adventure of faith	78	(5)
Liturgy as literature	83	(10)
PART III
Metaphor	93	(10)
Symbol	103	(11)
Myth	114	(23)
PART IV
Critical realism	137	(15)
Symbolic realism	152	(6)
Mythic realism	158	(17)
Bibliography	175	(11)
Name index	186	(4)
Subject index	190