Theopoetic: Theology and the Religious Imagination

59 Pages·1976·3.56 MB·English

by  Amos N. Wilder

YALE U N I V E R S I TY
L I B R A RY
THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
..i.-.'.^.iaa;
Theology and the Religious Imagination
by
Amos Niven Wilder
Fortress Press
Philadelphia
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C o n t e n ts
Foreword IV
Biblical quotations from the Revised Standard Version of the
Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952, © 1971, 1973 by the Division of
Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of 1
1. Theology and Theopoetic
Christ in the U.S.A., are used by permission.
13
2. The Recovery of the Sacred
The lines from "East Coker" and from "The Dry Salvages" by
T. S. Eliot are from his Four Quartets, copyright © 1943 by Har-
court Brace Jovanovich, Inc., and are used by permission.
3. Contemporary Mythologies and Theological
The lines from "Starlight Like Intuition Pierced the Twelve" by
Delmore Schwartz are from his Selected Poems: Summer Knowl Renewal 25
edge, copyright © 1950 by New Directions Publishing Corpora
tion, and are used by permission.
The lines from "The Dishonest Mailman" by Robert Creeley are 4. Traditional Pieties and the Religious Imagination 41
from his For Love, copyright © 1962 by Robert Creeley, and are
used by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons.
5. Ecstasy, Imagination, and Insight 56
COPYRIGHT © 1976 BY FORTRESS PRESS
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
73
reproduced, stored in a retrieval, or transmitted in any 6. Theopoetic and Mythopoetic
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy
ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the copyright owner. 101
Epilogue
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-36458
ISBN 0-8006-0435-0
5414K75 Printed in U.S.A. 1-435
ill
1
FOREWORD v
their participation in this offering. Their names well sug
gest the promising frontiers and tasks of the religious
imagination in our time. The present book is indebted in
F o r e w o rd
many ways to their papers.
On the same occasion a small collection of poems, Of
Alphus, with a silk-screen cover, was presented to me—
poems written by members of the Harvard Divinity
For the focus and themes of this book I am specially
School community, the first of a series. The title is
indebted to a number of friends and discussions. The
derived from the medieval epigraph on the title page:
initial chapter goes back to a short talk I was asked to
give in the spring of 1972. The occasion was the presen
No egg on Friday Alph will eat,
tation to me of a volume of essays edited by Howard E.
but drunken he will be on Friday still.
Hunter and entitled The Humanities, Religion and the
O what a pure religious man is he.
Arts Tomorrow.1 I chose the topic "Theology and Theo
poetic," and a short discussion followed. I believe that Since the epigraph and the dedication to myself appear
I had picked up the terms "theopoetic" and "theopoesis" on that same title page there is some ambiguity as to the
from Stanley Hopper and his students, no doubt in one identity of the "drunken" Alph. It is to be hoped that
or another of the remarkable consultations on hermen- the imputation can be turned if it be supposed, as Ephe-
eutics and language which he had organized at Drew and sians 5:18 suggests, that Alph is not "drunk with wine"
Syracuse to which so many of us are indebted. but "filled with the Spirit," or at least with the Muse.
I take this occasion to register my thanks to the editor Many of the poets represented in this collection had
and to the other contributors to that volume. Some of been members of a Colloquium on Religion and Litera
them were able to be present at the little ceremony; ture of which I had been the faculty consultant during
besides the editor, Harvey Cox, Robert Steele, Walter the spring semester. I take this opportunity to thank
Wagoner, Jane and John Dillenberger who collaborated David M. Robinson, who had initiated the colloquium, as
on a joint contribution as did Dorothy Austin and Roger well as Paul Holbrook, Travis du Priest, Michael Maso-
Hazelton, were also present. The other contributors, not pust, Gene Arnould, and Eugene Krause, who with others
able to be present, were Nathan A. Scott, Jr., Charles W. shared in our discussions and in the publication.
Kegley, Tom F. Driver, Charles Stoneburner, John W.
The present writing owes much to one larger circle.
Dixon, Jr., and Stanley R. Hopper. I thank them all for
Participation in the committees, symposia, and wine-cellar
discussions of the Society for the Arts, Religion, and Con
temporary Culture (ARC) during these recent years has
1. Howard E. Hunter, The Humanities, Religion and the Arts Tomor
provided much stimulus, orientation, and content, as
row (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972).
IV
VI FOREWORD
will be seen in various references in the text.2 Special
acknowledgment is due here to our Executive Secretary,
Mrs. Eugene Meyer, and to our most recent presidents, T h e o l o gy a nd T h e o p o e t ic
Stanley Hopper and Emery Valyi.
The Christian Century Foundation graciously granted
permission to reprint my articles from The Christian Cen
It is in the area of liturgies—the idiom and metaphors of
tury entitled "Theology and Theopoetic," nos. 1,2, and 3,
prayer and witness—that the main impasse lies today for
published as follows: "Theology and Theopoetic," vol. 90, the Christian.
no. 21 (23 May 1973); "The Renewal of the Religious
It is at the level of the imagination that the fateful issues
Imagination," vol. 90, no. 44 (5 December 1973); "Ec- of our new world-experience must first be mastered. It is
stacy, Imagination and Insight," vol. 91, no. 10 (13 here that culture and history are broken, and here that the
March 1974); these articles, in revised and extended church is polarized. Old words do not reach across the
new gulfs, and it is only in vision and oracle that we can
form, appear here as chapters 1, 4, and 5. The Journal of
chart the unknown and new-name the creatures.
Religious Thought allowed the inclusion of my article,
"Contemporary Mythologies and Theological Renewal," Before the message there must be the vision, before the
published in vol. 27, no. 3 (Autumn-Winter 1970), pp. sermon the hymn, before the prose the poem.
5—12, which appears here, in extended form, in chapter 3. Before any new theologies however secular and radical
there must be a contemporary theopoetic. The structures
2. Specially relevant here are certain publications sponsored by ARC of faith and confession have always rested on hierophanies
or growing out of its activities: (1) Myths, Dreams and Religion, ed. and images. But in each new age and climate the theo
Joseph Campbell (New York: Dutton, 1970); (2) my own Tillich Lec poetic of the church is reshaped in inseparable relation to
tures with other of my papers in The New Voice: Religion, Literature,
the general imagination of the time.1
Hermeneutics (New York: Herder, 1969) (out of print); (3) The
Grotesque in Contemporary Art and Literature, ed. James Luther Adams
(forthcoming); (4) Imagination, Meaning and the Creative Act, ed.
These theses written to introduce a recent collection
Stanley R. Hopper (forthcoming). See also the files of the Society's Bul
letin, ARC Directions, nos. 1-7 (1966-70) with contributions by Fred of verse have a direct bearing not only on liturgies but
erick Franck, Robert Sowers, Rollo May, Wolfgang Zucker, Samuel H.
on all religious language today including theology itself.
Miller, Joseph Campbell, Alan Watts, Meyer Schapiro, Jane Dillenberger,
and others. Religious communication generally must overcome a long
addiction to the discursive, the rationalistic, and the pro
saic. And the Christian imagination must go halfway to
meet the new dreams, mystiques, and mythologies that
are gestating in our time.
1. From the Foreword to Grace Confounding: Poems by Amos N. Wilder
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), p. ix.
1
£. THEOPOETIC THEOLOGY AND THEOPOETIC
My plea for a theopoetic means doing more justice to 2) It is not here implied that imagery and ritual are
the role of the symbolic and the prerational in the way we more crucial than Christian love and action. But signif
deal with experience. We should recognize that human icant action needs to be oriented and empowered by a
nature and human societies are more deeply motivated true vision and meaningful celebration.
by images and fabulations than by ideas. This is where
3) It is no answer when the churchman points to the
power lies and the future is shaped.
large place of religious imagery and symbolism in the
This plea therefore means according a greater role to actual piety and observance of the churches. Certainly
the imagination in all aspects of the religious life. But the hymn book, the prayers, and the sermon evoke the
"imagination" here should not be taken in an insipid dramatic archetypes of the faith just as do the rites and
sense. Imagination is a necessary component of all pro customs associated with Christmas and Easter. But what
found knowing and celebration; all remembering, realiz we have here too often is religious sentiment rather than
ing, and anticipating; all faith, hope, and love. When exorcism, nostalgia rather than actualized revelation. The
imagination fails doctrines become ossified, witness and true mythos of Christianity does not come to life, partly
proclamation wooden, doxologies and litanies empty, con because as stereotype it is not free to generate its own
solations hollow, and ethics legalistic. contemporary communication, and partly because it is not
It is at the level of the imagination that any full brought into costly relation with our current fates and
engagement with life takes place. It is not enough for choices.
the church to be on guard against the Philistine in the
4) It is not my intention to disallow the necessary
world. Philistinism invades Christianity from within
task of rigorous thinking about the faith and critical study
wherever the creative and mythopoetic dimension of faith
of its sources which we call theology. With many others
is forfeited. When this happens doctrine becomes a
today, however, I would like to see the horizons, agenda,
caricature of itself. Then that which once gave life be
methods, and so the very givens of theology enriched.
gins to lull and finally to suffocate us.
On this point I should add the following considerations.
Though theology strictly understood is an intellectual
if not a discursive activity yet the work of the greatest
To make good this plea I must first obviate a number theologians has always been shot through with the imag
of objections and misunderstandings.
ination. The kind of truth and reason that theology is
1) This emphasis should not be disparaged, as it often concerned to clarify does not permit of merely abstract,
is, as a plea for a shallow aestheticism. With our moral wooden, or pedantic treatment. Witness the procedure
istic and rationalist mind-set it is too easy to shelve any
of Augustine, Calvin, or Jonathan Edwards.
appeal for the rights of the imagination as a matter of
When I speak of the need for a richer agenda I can
"mere poetry." But what is in question here is not an
illustrate by what is called "cosmic theology." There is
irresponsible aestheticism but the essential dynamics of
no realm of experience in which even recent dogmatics
the heart and soul .
has been more anachronistic than that of nature. Devel-
31
4 THEOPOETIC THEOLOGY AND THEOPOETIC J)
opment of the natural sciences including astronomy to congenial to the contemporary reverence for our natural
gether with space exploration has effected as radical a habitat as it is widely rediscovered. It is important that
revolution in our outlook and sensibility as that which these things should.be clarified in a period concerned with
overcame the Ptolemaic universe ecology when older cultural sanctions for the exploita
But this new sensibility is also evident in the arts with tion of nature have been so widely misunderstood. But
their heightened awareness of the elements of perception, it is only at the level of a theopoetic that these contempo
the wonder of what is immediately presented to conscious rary issues can be rightly explored. We can learn more
ness in touch, sight, and sound. Reality has become from the Psalms and the Book of Job about man's rela
dizzying and uncharted but every particular contact with tion to the earth and the creatures as the Bible teaches
it all the more fresh and unpredictable. Thus the revolu than by some polemic twisting of a verse in Genesis.
tion in cosmology has shocked not only our intellectual When, on the other hand, I speak of the need today
but also our imaginative categories. As has been recog for an enrichment of the methods of theology I can illus
nized, the resulting surprise and insecurity is reflected trate by the contribution afforded from the side of secular
variously in the order of phantasy, space fiction, astrology, literary criticism. Biblical theology and interpretation
the apocalyptic imagination, and ecological mystiques. have of late taken on new vitality as we have learned to
But the mythical cosmology of Scripture and the Christ read the biblical texts with the tools and approaches
ian view of nature—when freed from distortions and im employed by our colleagues specialized in literary studies.
poverishments incident to a long history—have the This kind of enrichment has been particularly evident In
resources to welcome and order all such new imaginative all that concerns the appreciation of plastic language and
transactions with our theater of existence. "Cosmic poetic styles. More recently illumination of matters of
theology" takes hold of certain extramundane, mythical basic import has resulted from attention to aspects of
perspectives as found, for example, in the Epistles to the genre and structure. More generally, wide scrutiny today
Colossians and the Ephesians, in a way which answers to of the relation of religion and the arts has opened up the
the new categories of our modern vision of the creation. deeper dynamics of communication and meaning.
If Lucretius as a poet of nature's mysteries has his modern 5) Finally, one further caveat should be mentioned.
counterpart in a poet like Perse, so a theologian like Before we join the chorus of those who repeat that the
Joseph Sittler today contemporizes for us the cosmic per renewal of Christianity is a matter of the renewal of its
spectives of some of the early church fathers. Even in the language we should recognize how difficult this is. It is
case of St. Paul we are today freeing ourselves from the a costly transaction and cannot be manipulated.
narrow anthropological focus in which his outlook has We hear a good deal today in secular and academic
been obscured as we learn to appreciate the cosmic sense quarters about the arts and strategies of communication.
of his doctrine of justification. The implication often is that by substituting a short word
The view of nature in the Old Testament and in the for a long one, or a colloquial term for one more dated, or
teachings of Jesus, as in the Canticles of St. Francis, is a topical allusion or illustration for one drawn from an
D THEOPOETIC THEOLOGY AND THEOPOETIC
older context, we can "get across" our meaning or appeal. have the intramural aspect. What forms will a theopoetic
This may have its validity for advertizing "or some kinds take today which will both quicken the tradition and at
of popularization. Former president Melancthon M. the same time speak to the general imagination of the age?
Stryker of Hamilton College, a noted preacher in the old In an age which in other respects exhibits a rebirth of
style, once wrote an essay in words of one syllable in phantasy and the surreal—a revolt against the "objective
praise of "the stroke of quick speech, sharp of blade and consciousness"—why should the language of faith be so
sure of hilt." It is of interest to learn that this essay is largely confined to the discursive mode or to stereotypes
now again circulating, having been recently cited "in a that have forfeited their explosive power? The counter
newsletter for those in the internal communication field." culture today follows a true instinct in exploring even
But all such recipes and programmed strategies fall dubious versions of ecstasy and phantasy in the absence
short of accounting for the full mystery of language where of more authentic ones.
deep calls to deep. The textbooks of rhetoric provide
Yet when the wells of natural impulse are so blocked
only an outside equipment. Any fresh renewal of lan
and the water level of instinctive spontaneity is so low as
guage or rebirth of images arises from within and from
in the spiritual terrain of today why should so many feel
beyond our control. Nevertheless we can help prepare
that they have to resort to deceitful springs and exotic
the event, both by moral and spiritual discipline and by
oracles, to dowsing with hazel wands and to divinations
attention to the modes and vehicles of the Word. Of
and astrology, to elixirs and mirages? Jeremiah long
first importance here are the deeper vocabulary and idiom
ago contrasted "broken cisterns that can hold no water"
of the Spirit, and all that is suggested by such terms as
with "the fountain of living waters."
primordial language and dynamic symbol.
If we hear today precisely in some theological circles
of a dancing god, of a harlequin Christ, and of the motifs
II
of play and the playing child and. the clown-saint, we
Two aspects of my plea can be distinguished. One can should recognize the hunger for innocence and naivete so
be called the intramural and one the extramural, though attested. They are a protest against the penury of the
the two are closely related. The extramural considera Spirit which ever recurs when valid older dramas and
tion arises out of the many evidences in our culture of a fabulations no longer resonate.
turn toward what we can speak of loosely as the mystical,
A creative theopoetic is called for, therefore, not only
the prerational, and the imaginative. This is not only a
to vitalize a traditional theology but also to relate our
matter of the "counter-culture" but also of the modern
Christian experience to the new sensibility of our time
arts and even of the most sophisticated philosophy. The
and its images and cults. In the modern arts, in the
more our scientific technoculture ripens the more it seems
media, in various subcultures we see not only iconoclasm
to call forth, as a kind of shadow, a mentality com
and revolt but also new structures of the imagination tak
pounded of magic and mythology. But this new climate
ing shape. Here our new sense of reality, both cosmic
reminds the church of its own deeper dream and here we
and psychological, finds its symbolic expression both in
o THEOPOETIC THEOLOGY AND THEOPOETIC
art and in life-style. Any traditional religion must come When the Gospel breaks through the impasse in the
to terms with these developments. household of faith, at the same time it speaks to the quest
ing of our contemporaries. At no point is this clearer
Ill than as regards the inarticulate hunger for plenitude, for
I turn to the intramural aspect of my plea. Any transcendence, even for ecstasy both within and without
renewal of Christian discourse and liturgy today will be the religious institutions. If the category of glory in the
the work of the Spirit and therefore involve those dramat faith and worship of the church were more adequately
ic categories and poetics which are alone adequate to evoked—that is, in ways that chimed with the modern
the issues at stake. Here no doubt the classic symbols man's self-picture and world-picture—then these hungers
of faith emerge again in power, but only as mediated could be more fully met than they are at present either in
through our modern apperception. Pentecostalism or in the counter-culture.
The church today has widely lost and all but forgotten The motif of glory should of course be safeguarded
the experience of glory which lies at the heart of Chris against whatever version of intoxication. To take just
tianity. Indeed, in one form or another that experience one of the influential images of revolt which haunt the
is a main trait of all religion just because human nature imagination of our period, that of Dionysus: here the
and existence itself derive from inexhaustible energies motifs of spontaneity and ecstasy are ambiguous. Beyond
and cataracts of light and life. That the original pleni the more superficial intoxication of the god of the vine
tude is so widely smothered in the creaturely condition and of untrammeled vitality—a la Zorba the Greek—the
only enforces the special and irreplaceable role of religion initiate into the cult is drawn into' the true mania where
in witnessing to it.
dance and immolation are inseparable. Some of our
Yet how can theology or piety give any account of other contemporary scenarios for ecstasy and creativity
faith so understood without a continual rehearsal of vi are similarly seductive. But they all point to a craving
sionary representations, dramatic vehicles, and affectional for spontaneity occasioned by the character of our society,
language? When Paul writes about interpreting "spirit a thirst for liberation of the self, which the Christian sac
uals" ipneumatika), or "the things which are freely given rament of regeneration has every resource to satisfy. As
to us by God" in "spiritual language," this is part of what a matter of fact the New Testament church elaborated
he means. He certainly does not mean wan anrj blood the symbolics of its message and its ceremonies in just
less abstractions. Witness the mythopoetic scenarios and such a situation and in confrontation with just such
sensuous tropes which undergird his instruction and en powerful mythologies as those of Dionysus. Our litur
couragement. And what is also to the point in our pres gical practise today may well accommodate more persua
ent discussion is that this depth-language of Paul chimed sive images of the mystery of selfhood and its transforma
with the scenarios and quests of his Hellenistic readers. tion responsive to our own categories of alienation.
As in Paul's day so today the intramural and the extra One other contemporary mythology or dream of inno
mural aspects of a valid theopoetic merge with each other. cence may be cited. A French author with his eye on the
10
THEOPOETIC THEOLOGY AND THEOPOETIC 11
student revolts in Paris in 1968 has studied the "oneiric these impulses that are shaping the future. We can be
scenarios" of the counter-culture as there disclosed. One sure that as in the past the Spirit will prompt new
recurrent motif—more political but no less ambiguous tongues, new names, new songs to clarify these quests.
than that of Dionysus—was the old dream of the revolt
of the beggars or the vagabonds.2 The classic instance IV
was that of the Peasants' Revolt in 1525. Fumes of The special quality of the experience of blessedness or
eschatologkal hysteria seemed to rise out of the ground glory in the Christian faith is related to the way in which
itself. Thomas Miintzer preached his mystique of the evil is dealt with. There are various kinds and degrees
New Man. In an appeal to primitive Christianity, love of mystical joy or peace. The quality of such states is not
and freedom from all law were reconcilable with violence. just a matter of intensity. They can be intense but thin
The movement ended in the sanguinary anarchy of Mini or morbid. They can be momentary or lasting. They
ster. But the basic model of the brotherhood of the for can be isolated transports or they can be pervasive of the
lorn and the alienated is a perennial one and has its con initiate's wider experience and relationships. They can
temporary appeal in our setting. represent the resolution of private psychic tension or of
One could identify other underground mystiques and interpersonal and communal disorder.
myths that cast their spell on the imagination of our time. The category of blessedness as the Christian under
Perhaps the most important is that of Apocalypse testi stands it should not be confused with familiar forms of
fied so widely in literature and the arts today. The vision mystical transcendence. No doubt in their higher forms
of an End can mean catastrophe to some, a new heaven they reflect various levels of self-discipline and purgation.
and earth to others; it represents an otherworldly escape In this sense evil is assimilated and overcome. But Chris
for some and the fulfillment, the harvest of time for tian faith presumes to wrestle with the root evil of the
others; it is found as an obsessive delusion in mental race and the world, not only private but public. The
hospitals and as a nourishing dream of saints and martyrs. costly victory here, assured though incomplete, fulfills all
In any case the contemporary rediscovery of the daemonic other glimpses of beatitude just because a deeper disorder
and the surreal dimensions of existence demands dramatic is resolved.
expression. So much so that, as a counter-impulse in As is suggested by the term Kreuzseligkeit Christian
religion and philosophy, we see a flight from time and celebration is deepened by suffering and the early church's
history. Evidently dreams have power. Here again, a hilarotes (hilarity) is possible without irresponsibility.
Christian apocalyptic is called for that can resolve these The term Kreuzseligkeit or "blessedness in the cross"
confusions. Only a theopoetic can order and baptize does not connote a masochistic cult of suffering, though
certain traditions of piety have sometimes been thus dis
torted. The experience recognizes the believer's partici
pation in that divine operation in which ultimate evil is
2. Claude Mettra, Le grand printemps des gueux (Paris: A. Balland,
1969). See further, chap. 3 below. encountered and transmuted.