Imagining God: Theology and the Religious Imagination

by Garrett Green

This is a new kind of theological book-one that respects and affirms how important the secular study of religion is to Christian theology.In Imagining God Garrett Green presents an original interpretation of the nature of imagination that resolves the longstanding dichotomy between religious and scientific truth by conceiving imagination as the "point of contact" between divine revelation and human experience.Through a critical examination of the historical relationship between theology and religious imagination, Green outlines a constructive theology that views imagination as a means of making contemporary sense of God and Scripture without violating traditional Christian doctrine.

Genres: Theology

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1989

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite academic, and by that I mean the writing is not very accessible, and there's many references to other theologians and philosophers. You can tell Green is trying to make the discussion sound important, but I think he could have done it more simply and succinctly. I nearly quit in the first few chapters. Chapter four is where it all came together, so if nothing else, I recommending reading that chapter. He explores how science and religion operate with underlying paradigms.

Quotes:

"Kant offers a surprisingly simple definition: 'Imagination is the faculty of representing in intuition an object that is not itself present.'"
-pg 62

"Put most simply, the function of religious imagination is to tell us 'what the world is like' in its broadest and deepest sense. In more formal terms, if imagination is the human ability to perceive and represent likeness (the paradigmatic faculty), religions employ that ability in the service of cosmic orientation, rendering the world accessible to the imagination of their adherents in such a way that its ultimate nature, value, and destiny are made manifest."
-pg 79-80

"Expressed in terms of the imagination, the point is this: the human creature is most God-like in his ability to imagine, to make preset to his 'mind's eye' what is absent or even unreal. But this ability, like all human abilities, does not constitute an exception to sin but is co-opted by it. The sinful imagination, far from being a source of deliverance, becomes the most destructive weapon in the arsenal of human enmity toward God."
-pg 90

"The religious vision of 'what the world is like' embodied in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is for Christians the paradigmatic norm for human life and thought. Christian faith can be characterized accordingly as faithful imagination -- living in conformity to the vision rendered by the Word of God in the Bible. Theology is one function of that faithful life, performing the task of critical interpretation."
-pg 134

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

The big takeaway from reading Imagining God is the German word Anknüpfungspunkt. This was not a word that I encountered at theological college - Heilgeschichte - being the longest German word that I came across (which in retrospect is one of the shorter ones). Imagining God did in fact have a longer German word but I can't find it now.

Like a lot of German words (Schadenfreude for instance) the multi-syllabic Anknüpfungspunkt does in fact describe a concept that takes four words in English. Unpoetic German may appear in the Anglo-sphere but there is a certain efficiency in dealing with things in single words. Anknüpfungspunkt means a point of contact in a legal argument. In theology it means the point at which divine revelation touches fallen humanity. This is a particular German concern which has created contention in the past - most notably in Karl Barth's emphatic Nein in his argument with Emil Brünner. The options appear either to a bend towards Natural theology whereby nature itself is the point of revelation as seized upon by the human mind (to which Barth was opposed) or Biblical fideism whereby Scripture is the point of Revelation, and as such is unquestionable.

Garrett Green proposes a third possibility - that the angknüpfungspunkt is in fact the human imagination, in particular paradigmatic imagination which is able to create patterns out of discrete points (as in music) and thus create meaning. In short, but quite dense, eight chapters, Green explores concepts of the imagination in human thought, looking particularly at Kuhn's theory of scientific paradigms before then exploring imagination and theology. I had hoped for a book that would engage a little more with the creative arts, but that is not its purpose. I did find the chapter on the Imago Dei very illuminating, echoing some thoughts that I had on this many years ago.

Ultimately he arrives at (as far as I can see it) a similar point of apologetics as Leslie Newbiggin. The angknüpfungspunkt takes place in the narratival understanding of Scripture which makes sense for those within the story but may be challenged by those without. I am not sure quite how much further this takes us, but I am attracted by the imagination as the point of contact where the act, but not content, of revelation takes place. It needs to be read with more attention than I was able to give it.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful introduction to historical ideas around the imagination and possible approaches to articulating what is meant by a Christian imagination. Having grounded his discussion in the stinging debate between Barth and Bruner around the area of natural theology Green offers helpful insights and options for further exploration. However where this book falls short for me is it’s stated focus on how theology operates in the world of religious studies rather than addressing the question of how an understanding of the Christian imagination can be an aspect of the relationship between theology and the church.

[Kent-11111 Mailuhu]

buku ini dipinjamkan oleh seorang teman yang sekarang sudah almarhum, dan belom sempat gw kembalikan, juga belom selesai gw baca

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to religious imagination with good insights on how Kuhn's paradigm theory is applicable. Green sees imagination as the site of revelation.