Between The Image And The Word

The central contention of Christian faith is that in the incarnation the eternal Word or Logos of God himself has taken flesh, so becoming for us the image of the invisible God. Our humanity itself is lived out in a constant to-ing and fro-ing between materiality and immateriality. Imagination, language and literature each have a vital part to play in brokering this hypostatic union of matter and meaning within the human creature. Approaching different aspects of two distinct movements between the image and the word, in the incarnation and in the dynamics of human existence itself, Trevor Hart presents a clearer understanding of each and explores the juxtapositions with the other. Hart concludes that within the Trinitarian economy of creation and redemption these two occasions of 'flesh-taking' are inseparable and indivisible. Review: 'The fourteenth century poet Petrarch, in one of his letters, posed this rhetorical question: What is theology if not poetry about God? In this collection of illuminating essays, grounded in an excursus on the inevitable character of theological language as thinkers from Aquinas to Ricoeur have understood it, Trevor Hart explores with insight and verve the theological potential in verbal and visual imagery (ut picture poesis). The result is a highly stimulating contribution to reflection on the nature of theology itself as well as on its fruitful dance among the arts.'David Jeffrey, Baylor University Waco, USA