The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism

by David Tracy

An essential addition to any serious theological library. David Tracy introduces his influential concept of the "classic," as well as his idea of the difference between analogical and other ways of viewing the life of faith. He looks at the culture of pluralism, examining the main differences in the world's theological doctrines.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Christianity, Religion

480 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1981

About the author

David William Tracy was an American Catholic theologian and priest. He was the Andrew Thomas Greeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Catholic Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Reviews

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

As one might expect from the title, The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism, this work by former University of Chicago theologian, David Tracy, is concerned with communicating Christian symbols in a public (and hence, pluralistic) forum by using the tool of analogy. Some theologians don’t like analogical thinking because they recognize where analogy falls short. Tracy indicates that analogy is, in actuality, a correction for narrowness and shallowness in Christian thought.

Personally, I wish Tracy had started with his definition of analogy. It would have clarified his intent more than his initial discussion of the different “publics” that theology serves. “Analogy is a language of ordered relationships articulating similarity-in-difference.” (p. 408) In that sense, we would have seen from the outset of the volume that analogical thinking is dialectical by nature and so, extremely valuable in a pluralistic culture. Of course, he does quote Paul Ricoeur about the dialectical power of analogies (though the quotation uses the broader term, “symbol”), “The symbol gives rise to thought, but thought always returns to and is informed by the symbol.” (p. 13)

Tracy spends the first hundred pages of the book delineating the public task of theology. He sees this task taking place in the context of society, with the rigor of the academy, and the transformational events of the church. Without the demand for public scrutiny, Tracy contends “…for criteria, evidence, warrants, disciplinary status—serious academic theology is dead. The academic setting of much of the best theology, precisely by its demands for public criteria in all disciplines, assures that announcements of that death remain premature.” ( p. 21).

For me, however, the book came to life when Tracy began to expound upon interpreting first the classics not usually identified with religion and expressing an approach to their interpretation. The four stages of interpretation may be considered as follows:

1) The interpreter experiences the classic on the basis of her/his own pre-understanding (p. 118)

2) The interpreter experiences the classic’s claim for attention within the work itself (p. 119)

3) The interpreter grasps the dynamic of the message in personal experience through asking questions, responding to the art, following up on hints embedded in the classic, “listening” for the resonances and feelings in the work (p. 120)

4) The interpreter experiences the benefit of dialogue when engaging with other interpreters (pp. 120-121)

Of course, this discussion is preparatory to Tracy’s discussion about interpreting a specifically RELIGIOUS classic. I very much appreciated his clarifications here. “When religious persons speak the language of revelation, they mean that something has happened to them that they cannot count as their own achievement.” (p. 173) He also stated, “…the sense of mystery will include experiential elements of both a fascinans and a tremendum character.” (p. 176) And, because of the limitations of human experience given the awareness of the divine, “At best religious expression can hope for relative adequacy.” (p. 176)

The latter half of the book develops his “trinity” of approaches to the Bible, the church tradition, and the critical tradition as being built upon ideas of manifestation, proclamation, and action. In so doing, Tracy summarizes the three major emphases of the gospel as:

1) “The cross discloses the power, pain, seriousness and scandal of the negative: the conflict, destruction, contradiction, the suffering of love which is the actuality of life. The cross discloses God’s power as a love appearing as weakness to the powers of the world.” (pp. 281-2)

2) “The resurrection vindicates, confirms, and transforms that journey to and through its negations of the negations of a suffering love. The resurrection of Jesus by God grounds our hope in a real future for all the living and the dead where pain shall be no more. It discloses the enabling power of that reality as here even now; …” (p. 282)

3) “Incarnation fulfills its liberating function only in intrinsic relationship to cross and resurrection. Cross and resurrection live together or not at all.” (p. 282)

Of course, the cross corresponds to action, the resurrection message to proclamation, and the incarnation to manifestation. As he writes late in the book, “…manifestation, proclamation and action—vision, hearing and act—moves forward into the particularity of its experience of the event of Jesus Christ.” (p. 405) So, the use of analogical methodology is to recognize that:

First, theologians articulate principles of order in the event by articulating one particular focal meaning or prime analogical concept. (p. 410)

Second, theologians provide philosophical reflection to argue that concept’s affinity (p. 411) such that “Where analogical theologies lose that sense for the negative, that dialectical sense within analogy itself, they produce not a believable harmony among various likenesses in all reality but the theological equivalent of ‘cheap grace:’ boredom, sterility, and an atheological vision of a deadening univocity.” (p. 413)

Naturally, this summary is inadequate for a book of this length and depth. Yet, it should offer some hint of the power in this volume.

[Terrance Lively · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book that makes some points historically and today. The idea of public theology is a difficult one but Tracy makes a good case for it.