This introduction to the theatre also attempts to offer a meditation on the theatricality of the Incarnation. Arguing that both biblical and dramatic texts should be approached with a theatrical rather than a literary imagination, the author explores theat

This book considers Emerson and Nietzsche primarily as post-theological religious thinkers and treats their understanding of the nature of religion and language. It argues that their critique of Christianity and rejection of transcendence which allowed them to recover the divine within the individual is informed by their emphasis on the humanity of Jesus. The idea of Jesus as man is also the key to their interpretation of language. The Word inscribed in the world becomes the condition for the possibility of meaning.

These essays are written by scholars from widely differing disciplines and traditions. Theologians, philosophers, literary critics and historians of ideas approach the question of how the judaeo-Christian tradition of theological reflection has suffered from and will negotiate the emergence of postmodern theory and practice in literature and criticism. Chapters deal with specific texts from Euripides to contemporary fiction, and with the traditions of cultural theory from Nietszche to Benjamin, to Derrida and what David Klemm identifies as the tragedy of present theology.

The essays in this collection fall into three groups. The first group deals with philosophical accounts of interpretation. The second is concerned with the interpretation of scripture with particular reference to the work of the Oxford theologian and philosopher Austin Farrer. The third group provides some examples of interpretative practice relating to Genesis and the book of Psalms. The contributors represent a wide range of academic disciplines and religious traditions, providing significant pointers for further developments in Biblical criticism and interpretation theory.

If imagination is understood to be a human response to the self-revelation of God, what practical results might this have for the work both of literary criticism and theology? Both theologians and creative writers find human existence to be characterised by basic tension between freedom and limit, which accounts for a sense of 'fallenness', and which a dialogue between literature and Christian doctrine can do much to illuminate. Such a dialogue is worked out in studies of the poetry of William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the novels of D.H. Lawrence, Iris Murdoch and William Golding.

Allegory in America surveys the history of American allegorical writing from the Puritans through the period of American romanticism to postmodernism. In a series of theoretical chapters the cultural function of allegory is discussed in relation to the mythology of American exceptionalism. Each theoretical chapter is followed by a chapter that analyzes a specific text or group of texts. Allegorical indeterminacy is seen to produce a literary tradition that both represents and subverts the ideals of American orthodoxy.

The Apocalypse of John is perhaps the most alluring and dangerous text in any scripture. This study looks at English responses to it in political pamphlets and scholarly exegesis, in poetry and preaching and visual art. Those who set out to find enduring meaning in the book failed. Yet in the post-Christian re-writings of Revelation by Shelley and Blake, John's own dynamic of unveiling comes to life, subverting the structures of power and reading built on the visions of Patmos.

Part of the Studies in Literature and Religion series which provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of literature and religion, this book looks at European literature and theology in the 20th century.

Victims and the Postmodern Narrative suggests that reading and writing about literature are ways to gain an ethical understanding of how we live in the world. Postmodern narrative is an important way to reveal and discuss who are society's victims, inviting the reader to become one with them. A close reading of fiction by Toni Morrison, Patrick Suskind, D.M. Thomas, Ian McEwan and J.M. Coetzee reveals a violence imposed on gender, race and the body-politic. Such violence is not new to the postmodern world, but merely reflects Western culture's religious traditions, as the author demonstrates...

This is an analysis of the ancient Christian myth that casts Jews as a witness-people and this myth's presence in contemporary religious discourse. The book treats diverse products of the Christian imagination, including systematic theology, works of fiction and popular writings on biblical prophecy. It demonstrates that the witness-people myth, which was first articulated by Augustine and which determined official attitudes towards Jews in medieval Christendom, remains a powerful force in the Christian imagination.