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Document Details :

Title: Imagination and Theology
Subtitle: The Status Quaestionis
Author(s): LANE, Dermot A.
Journal: Louvain Studies
Volume: 34    Issue: 2-3   Date: 2010   
Pages: 119-145
DOI: 10.2143/LS.34.2.2118197

Abstract :
This article seeks to provide a broad context in which one might develop the potential contribution of the imagination in solving the challenges facing contemporary theology. The article first examines the theological challenges which prompt an interest in rehabilitating the imagination. It then analyzes the checkered past of the imagination, in order to illustrate that the rehabilitation of the imagination will only succeed if there is an awareness of the distortions that imagination can create. It suggests that it is possible and necessary for reason and imagination to co-exist in a mutually critical relationship, in which – if certain conditions are met – imagination can be given the lead role. Finally, the article examines the dynamics of the creative imagination and how these could be used in the service of a theology of revelation and theology itself.

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