Faith, Hope and Poetry

This book explores the poetic imagination as a way of knowing, of seeing reality more clearly. It looks in particular at the contribution poetry can make to our religious knowing, to the way we "do Theology". A series of critical appreciations of English poetry from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day apply the insights of that poetry to contemporary issues. The book is not solely concerned with overtly religious poetry and attends to the paradoxical ways in which the poetry of doubt and despair also enriches theology. These appreciations can be read independently, but when read in sequence they build towards a substantial theology of imagination which is fully developed in the final two chapters. These develop an original analysis and application of the poetic vision of Coleridge and Seamus Heaney, showing how imagination provides unique insights into truth which complement and enrich more strictly rational ways of knowing. Readers of this book will return to their reading of poetry equipped with new insights and enthusiasm and will be challenged to integrate imaginative ways of knowing into their other academic and intellectual pursuits.