Between the Image and the Word (Routledge Studies in Theology, Imagination and the Arts) - Softcover

Hart, Trevor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472413709 ISBN 13: 9781472413703

Publisher: Routledge, 2013

Synopsis

The central contention of Christian faith is that in the incarnation the eternal Word or Logos of God himself has taken flesh, so becoming for us the image of the invisible God. Our humanity itself is lived out in a constant to-ing and fro-ing between materiality and immateriality. Imagination, language and literature each have a vital part to play in brokering this hypostatic union of matter and meaning within the human creature. Approaching different aspects of two distinct movements between the image and the word, in the incarnation and in the dynamics of human existence itself, Trevor Hart presents a clearer understanding of each and explores the juxtapositions with the other. Hart concludes that within the Trinitarian economy of creation and redemption these two occasions of ’flesh-taking’ are inseparable and indivisible.

About this title

About the Author:

Trevor Hart is Professor of Divinity and (since 2000) Director of the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts in the University of St Andrews. Formerly Lecturer in Systematic Theology in the University of Aberdeen, he is the author and editor of numerous publications including Faith Thinking (SPCK, 2000), Regarding Karl Barth (Paternoster, 1999), Hope Against Hope (Eerdmans,1999), Tolkien, Literature and Theology (Baylor, 2007), Faithful Performances (Ashgate, 2007), and Patterns of Promise (Ashgate, 2012).

Review:

'The fourteenth century poet Petrarch, in one of his letters, posed this rhetorical question: 'What is theology if not poetry about God?' In this collection of illuminating essays, grounded in an excursus on the inevitable character of theological language as thinkers from Aquinas to Ricoeur have understood it, Trevor Hart explores with insight and verve the theological potential in verbal and visual imagery (ut picture poesis). The result is a highly stimulating contribution to reflection on the nature of theology itself as well as on its fruitful dance among the arts.' --David Jeffrey, Baylor University Waco, USA

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1472413709
• ISBN 13: 9781472413703
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264