Sense of the Possible: An Introduction to Theology and Imagination
Sense of the Possible: An Introduction to Theology and Imagination
Project Summary
Sense of the Possible is for those interested in learning about the intersection of Christian theology and imagination. Written from the assumption that imagination is deeply connected to the Christian work for liberation and human flourishing, this book is an energizing introduction to the ways in which theologians have thought about the powerful human capacity to envision a future that has not yet come. Containing perspectives from scripture, theology, philosophy, and congregational studies, this text is an excellent way to explore how it is that imagination can be part of a faithful Christian life. Each chapter comes with recommended readings and discussion questions that can be used in churches or classrooms.
Target Audience
First and foremost, this book is for Christians who have little to do with the academy but want to peek in a bit and see what has been said about imagination and faith by people who think and write about that for a living.
I envision a broad cross section of folks who might have interests in imagination and faith. In fact, I wrote the discussion questions at the end of each chapter hoping that some church small group leaders, pastors, or adult religious education directors out there might find them useful for the church as a whole. Drop me a line if you’re one of those folks hoping to use this for your community. Having written much of this during the first waves of COVID-19, I am vividly aware that Zooming into churches is viable: I’d love to be able to support you in your explorations!
Second, this book serves as a survey of the theology and imagination conversation for those interested in getting a sense of the scope of this discussion in the academy. This might mean you’re an undergraduate reading this for a class or a seminary student looking to see if you want to dig into some of the more advanced work I reference. I have tried to contextualize all the thinkers I use at length in this book, writing a bit about their background and other things going on in their time and place so that you can get a sense of where they’re coming from. I’ve tried to balance (a) notpresuming too much background knowledge on the reader’s behalf with (b) not wanting to come off as condescending or overly simplistic. Hopefully, I’ve come up with a good mix.
Finally, for those who already know they are interested in diving deeper into research on imagination and theology, I hope that the text has some occasionally useful reflections and that how I’ve oriented the ideas here helps you to see some new constellations in familiar stars. While it would be foolish to say that everything about imagination and Christian theology is referenced in this book, I have intentionally labored to make sure this book is a solid introduction to this material. I’ve captured many of the different ways this conversation has developed, so between the “Related Readings” sections and the authors I’ve cited, you’ll have a pretty useful sense of where in the bibliography you might want to turn next. I’ve opted to provide a thorough index for ease of use, thinking that some of you might end up using this book as a quick reference text to brush up on an author or idea.
Why conduct this research?
One of the reasons I was excited to be asked to write this book for Cascade is because one of their goals is to produce books that make academic study accessible to a broader audience. What that means for this book is that I was able to write in a way that would be hopefully more accessible, spending more time on explanations of things that might get skipped over in texts written mostly for other academics.
Partnership:
The author of the forward is a colleague of mine, Dr. Heather Walton, whose PhD students in Theology through Creative Practice at the University of Glasgow were some of the audience I envisioned this project being useful for.