Found Theology: History, Imagination and the Holy Spirit

by Ben Quash

Found Theology is a book about how theology deals with newly-encountered (of 'found') material in time, and about the role of imagination in these encounters. The book is unusual and ground-breaking exercise in the interdisciplinary discussion of theology and the arts.

Ben Quash brings together elements of doctrine, scripture, the fine arts and the experiences of everyday life. He looks closely at Christian artistic traditions via a number of case studies that represent a rich source of examples of the way that the new times properly stimulate new expressions of known and loved things. Quash engages closely with some serious and prominent American scholars, namely Peter Ochs, Daniel W. Hardy, C.S. Peirce and David H. Kelsey.

Genres: Theology

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Stephen Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book advances a theology that understands history as a gift of the Holy Spirit helping us to relate to God in Christ. Imagination is key to this understanding, which Quash employs in relating the found to the given. The book succeeds admirably in its ambition to be a groundbreaking exercise in the interdisciplinary discussion of theology, science and the arts. It argues that the perfection of God’s revelation in Christ is not compromised by, but rather implies an ongoing historical dynamic in which human beings are constantly invited to relate the given to the found, shedding new light and new meaning on old things.

The author tells us that he believes Christians must live with the fact that history is both the condition of original sin as well as the medium through which redemption comes. The argument for taking the ‘found’ seriously is not that every sinful act or effect we may encounter is God-given; it is rather that all ‘God-givenness’ comes to us in the form of history.

In the Preface to the book we are introduced to D H Lawrence’s imagining of the Holy Spirit as the ‘dark hound of Heaven’, bounding ahead into the unknown, ‘tracking the mysterious, everlasting departing of the Lord God,’ forever going forward beyond our horizon, like a ‘hound on the scent, away in unmapped wilderness’. By the end of this theological adventure we have a better sense of just what this hunting down entails... The searching out of the found, in the activity of the Holy Spirit, for the given in Christ, the God incarnate.
Fans of fresh, engaging, well-expressed and richly imagined works of theological enterprise will not be disappointed.

[Toby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a deep and profound book that requires concentrated reading to understand and digest. For one reason or another I haven't always had that luxury over the past couple of weeks so my understanding is more partial than I would have wished. At some point a re-read will be necessary.

Quash takes us through art, poetry and philosophy in his discussion of Biblical revelation and interpretation, leading us to an idea of abduction (from the philosopher C.S. Pierce) where tentative and careful reading of text and context (both historical and contemporary) can lead us to faithful, and yet perhaps novel, interpretations. In the course of this we look at Carpaccio's The Dead Christ, the poetry of Henry Vaughan and Samuel Coleridge, the art of translation as well as the aforementioned Pierce. There is a huge amount of erudition here as we think through God and history, time before and time after (although surprisingly Eliot's only reference is to the Naming of Cats) and the role of the Holy Spirit as interpreter of the past as well as gift of the future. As with all stimulating books, the footnotes and bibliography provide excellent rabbit holes for the inquisitive reader to dive down.