WRITING WITH THEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION WELL

Starting Points

Adapted from Chapter 9 of Writing Theology Well: A Rhetoricfor Theological and Biblical Writers, Lucretia B. Yaghjian

WHAT IS THE THEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION?

• The theological imagination refers to the active mind’s thinking, questioning, dreaming, creating, construing, constructing, critiquing, speaking, and writing in the conceptual language of theology.

HOW SHALL WE WRITE WITH IT?

• As a way of knowing mediated by the human mind

• As a way of seeing grounded in acts of perception that form images

• As a way of reflecting that filters and forms concepts in response to those images

• As a way of connecting concrete images and the concepts derived from them into a unified theological reflection

WHAT ARE THE RHETORICS OF THE THEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION ?

• Writing with the theological imagination is a rhetorical process

• It employs analogy, metaphor, and symbolas rhetorics, or elements of purposeful communication

• They connect the concrete and conceptual, the particular and universal, the immanent and transcendent in theological writing

WHAT IS ANALOGY?

• An extended simile and/or a set of correspondences in which something is asserted to be like something else in corresponding ways

• “Analogy shapes every category of words used to speak about God.”(Elizabeth Johnson)

FOR EXAMPLE:

• My love is like a red, red rose• Her devotion is like the bud• Her disdain is like the thorn• Her forgiveness is like the fragrance• Her constancy is like the stem

CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES

• Thomas Aquinas: “Words are used of God and creatures according to an analogy” (analogia entis)

• David Tracy: Analogy is “A [rhetorical] language of ordered relationships articulating similarity in difference” (The Analogical Imagination)

WRITING WITH ANALOGY WELL

• An Analogical Method for Structuring a Theological or Historical Essay:– Identifying the analogical elements– Ordering the corresponding analogues– Explicating similarities and differences– Re-imagining the classic analogues for

contemporary audiences(see WTW 208-209 for a more detailed

description of this method)

FOR EXAMPLE:• Historical Landmarks in the Theology

of Grace (the classic analogue)• Augustine’s (G1), Aquinas’ (G2), and

Luther’s (G3) imagination of Grace• Grace as gratuitous “gift” (G1), grace

as “habit” or “disposition” (G2) , grace as “God’s forgiveness” that renders one “simul justus et peccator” (G3)

• A Contemporary Re-imaging of Grace(Construct your own analogy here . . . .)

WHAT IS METAPHOR?

• A figure of speech in which something is something else which it literally is not (“My love is a red, red rose . . .”)

• Metaphor can be approached as “word-based” or “sentence-based”

• From either perspective, “Our life is fed and shaped by its metaphors” (Walter Brueggemann)

THE WORD-BASED APPROACH TO METAPHOR

• Defines “metaphor” as a particular kind of word compared to another word to produce a “figure of speech” that renames the first word, or

• An implicit comparison between two dissimilar things (“my love is a rose”) in which the similarity is emphasized

• Functions as a noun (“name word”), and “surface feature” of literary style

FOR EXAMPLE:

To see a world in a grain of sand /And a heaven in a wild flower /Hold infinity in the palm of your hand/And eternity in an hour.

--William Blake (1803)

THE SENTENCE-BASED APPROACH TO METAPHOR

• Defines “metaphor” in the context of the full sentence in which it appears

• Locates it in the deep structures, not merely the surface features of language

• Sees metaphor as constitutive of how we use language to communicate

• Metaphors do not merely rename; they create something new that could not be known without them

FOR EXAMPLE:It doesn’t have to beThe blue iris, it could beWeeds in a vacant lot, or a fewSmall stones; justPay attention, then patch

A few words together and don’t tryTo make them elaborate, this isn’tA contest but the doorwayInto thanks, and a silence in whichAnother voice may speak.

--Praying, Mary Oliver (2006)

WRITING WITH METAPHOR WELL:A WRITER-BASED USER’S GUIDE

• To describe one’s writing process/plan• To describe transcendent subject matter• To name and frame theologies• To make theological assertions• To organize and unify a text• To conjoin literal and figurative language• To choose appropriate metaphors for the

theological writing task (cf. WTW 216-219)

FOR EXAMPLE:

• For a Christology class, you have been asked to write your own christological faith in response to the question, “Who do you say that I am?”

• What metaphors from Scripture would you use? What contemporary metaphors from your own experience would you use? Please respond in a one-page reflection.

WHAT IS A SYMBOL?

• If a metaphor is a figure of speech in which something is something else which it literally is not (“My love is a rose”), a symbol is “something else” bearing significance in and of itself and pointing beyond itself (“Love”; Rose”; “Cross”; “God”; “Jesus”).

SIGN-BASED DEFINITION OF SYMBOL

• A symbol is something that points to what it signifies but does not participate in that to which it points

• For example: The rainbow was a sign of God’s covenant to Noah, but was not synonymous with it

MEANING-BASED DEFINITION OF SYMBOL

• A symbol is a concrete object or entity that is set apart because of the meaning it embodies and evokes

• For example: Jacob’s stone became “the gate of heaven” and “the house of God” when he awoke from his dream (Gen 28:16-18)

MEDIATION-BASED MEANING OF SYMBOL

• A mediation-based symbol “mediates” a meaning or reality that could not be known without the symbol

• It “participates” in that to which it “points” and is thereby called a religious symbol

• For example: The “burning bush” mediated the presence of Yahweh to Moses

TEXT-BASED MEANING OF SYMBOL

• A text-based symbol is a symbol created by an author of a text to function symbolically within that text (e.g. a literary symbol)

• For example: the white whale in Melville’s Moby Dick is a text-based symbol

WRITING WITH SYMBOL WELL: A WRITER-BASED USER’S GUIDE

“Theology is a symbolic discipline; from beginning to end it deals with symbols.”

--Roger Haight• Discovering the symbol• Developing the symbol• Dialoguing with the symbol• Deconstructing the symbol• Reconstructing the symbol(See WTW 228-231 for more detail)

FOR EXAMPLE:

• You have been asked to give a presentation on The Trinity for a confirmation class at your parish.

• Keeping the age and level of spiritual development of your audience in mind, please write a one-page lesson plan in which you use a contemporary object (or objects) as a Trinitarian symbol, and explain its meaning simply and clearly.

WRITING WITH THEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION WELL: EPILOGUE

St. Joan: I hear voices telling me whatto do. They come from God.

Captain de Baudricourt: They come from your imagination.

St. Joan: That is how the messages of God come to us.

--Bernard Shaw, St. Joan (1924)

HOW DO MESSAGES OF GOD COME TO YOU???

• To conclude this session on “Writing with Theological Imagination Well,” please reflect on an experience in which you “heard God’s voice.” Recalling the theological imagination as a way of knowing, seeing, reflecting, and connecting, please describe your experience in writing, and explain how your imagination communicated God’s presence and “voice” to you.