WRITING WITH THEOLOGICAL
IMAGINATION WELL
Starting Points
Adapted from Chapter 9 of Writing Theology Well: A Rhetoric
for 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?
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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
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a rhetorical process
It employs analogy, metaphor, and symbol
as 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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 be
The blue iris, it could be
Weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
Small stones; just
Pay attention, then patch
A few words together and don’t try
To make them elaborate, this isn’t
A contest but the doorway
Into thanks, and a silence in which
Another 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
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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 what
to 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.