Poetic Theology: God and the Poetics of Everyday LifeWhat are the poetics of everyday life ? What can they teach us about God? Art, music, dance, and writing can certainly be poetic, but so can such diverse pastimes as fishing, skiing, or attending sports events. Any and all activities that satisfy our fundamental need for play, for celebration, and for ritual, says William Dyrness, are inherently poetic and in Poetic Theology he demonstrates that all such activities are places where God is active in the world. All of humanity s creative efforts, Dyrness points out, testify to our intrinsic longing for joy and delight and our deep desire to connect with others, with the created order, and especially with the Creator. This desire is rooted in the presence and calling of God in and through the good creation. With extensive reflection on aesthetics in spirituality, worship, and community development, Dyrness s Poetic Theology will be useful for all who seek fresh and powerful new ways to communicate the gospel in contemporary society. William Dyrness s bold invitation to a poetic theology shaped by Scripture, tradition, and imagination one luring us toward a fuller participation in beauty than argument or concept alone allow reminds us that truth itself is beautiful to behold and poetic to the core. . . . If poetry is in its deepest reflex an intensification of life, then Dyrness s call for a poetic theology is one we ignore at our peril, reminding us that faithful living is not only about proper thinking but also and, perhaps, more properly about the texture of our living and the quality of our loving. Mark S. Burrows Andover Newton Theological School Makes a strong case for aesthetics as one of the avenues used by God to draw human beings near to him and his glory. . . . A wonderful journey through Reformed spirituality and a wake-up call for Reformed theology. Cornelius van der Kooi Free University, Amsterdam |
Contents
Theological Reflections | 3 |
Theologia Poetica | 37 |
Poetic Stewardship of Life | 71 |
Rereading the NineteenthCentury Romantic Heritage | 99 |
Dante Bunyan and the Search for | 153 |
Calvin the Locked Church and | 187 |
The Aesthetics of Church | 217 |
Aesthetics and Social Transformation | 253 |
Systematic Implications | 283 |
Common terms and phrases
active argue artist Augustine Balthasar beauty believed biblical Bunyan C. S. Lewis Calvin celebrate chapter Charles Taylor Christ Christian church contemplation contemporary context created creation creative culture Dante described desire divine Eerdmans embodied Eschatology evangelical experience expression faith focus glory God’s Goizueta Gospel Graham Ward Grand Rapids Gunton Hamann historical human images imagination important Jacques Maritain Jeremy Begbie Jesus John John Calvin John Milbank journey Karl Barth Lewis lives Maritain meaning medieval Milbank modern moral narrative Nicholas Wolterstorff notion objects one’s Oxford participation person Pietist poetic theology poetry practices praise presence Princeton Radical Orthodoxy reading reality reflects Reformation religion religious Ricoeur ritual role Romantic sacraments says Schleiermacher Scripture seek sense shape social space spiritual story Subsequent pages symbolic Theological Aesthetics thetic things thinks Tillich tion tradition trans transformation Trinitarian truth understanding University Press vision Wolterstorff words worship York