Findings: Poets and the Crisis of Faith
It is part of the innocence of poetry that it can testify to reality without trying to explain and systematize as the theologians must do. They look for truths which converge in a single system; while the poets claim the freedom to think, to question, and to record, boldly and unsystematically. Moreover their conclusions are tentative: "I saw this, I felt this--take it or leave it!"
For myself, I have come into a phase where I find it very hard to read religious books (which is a statement about my own condition, not about the books); but after many years I am now able to read poetry again. I cannot present modern poets in a chronological sequence expressing a general recovery of discovery of religious faith, as I did with the loss of faith--but only point to individuals who found their own way out of doubt and despair. I do not claim that poets must be right; they have ventured down many paths, and some proved to be dead ends. Where they found new insights, these have been explored by theologians too; and some poets such as Dante and Blake have expounded religious philosophies. Indeed Carol Murphy, a contemporary Friend, suggests that "The deepest truths can be conveyed only in poetry, and Christian theology, truly seen, is not a set of dusty propositions, nor a dreamy fairy-tale, but the highest poetry, full of illuminating images and brilliant paradoxes."
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For myself, I have come into a phase where I find it very hard to read religious books (which is a statement about my own condition, not about the books); but after many years I am now able to read poetry again. I cannot present modern poets in a chronological sequence expressing a general recovery of discovery of religious faith, as I did with the loss of faith--but only point to individuals who found their own way out of doubt and despair. I do not claim that poets must be right; they have ventured down many paths, and some proved to be dead ends. Where they found new insights, these have been explored by theologians too; and some poets such as Dante and Blake have expounded religious philosophies. Indeed Carol Murphy, a contemporary Friend, suggests that "The deepest truths can be conveyed only in poetry, and Christian theology, truly seen, is not a set of dusty propositions, nor a dreamy fairy-tale, but the highest poetry, full of illuminating images and brilliant paradoxes."
Findings: Poets and the Crisis of Faith
It is part of the innocence of poetry that it can testify to reality without trying to explain and systematize as the theologians must do. They look for truths which converge in a single system; while the poets claim the freedom to think, to question, and to record, boldly and unsystematically. Moreover their conclusions are tentative: "I saw this, I felt this--take it or leave it!"
For myself, I have come into a phase where I find it very hard to read religious books (which is a statement about my own condition, not about the books); but after many years I am now able to read poetry again. I cannot present modern poets in a chronological sequence expressing a general recovery of discovery of religious faith, as I did with the loss of faith--but only point to individuals who found their own way out of doubt and despair. I do not claim that poets must be right; they have ventured down many paths, and some proved to be dead ends. Where they found new insights, these have been explored by theologians too; and some poets such as Dante and Blake have expounded religious philosophies. Indeed Carol Murphy, a contemporary Friend, suggests that "The deepest truths can be conveyed only in poetry, and Christian theology, truly seen, is not a set of dusty propositions, nor a dreamy fairy-tale, but the highest poetry, full of illuminating images and brilliant paradoxes."
For myself, I have come into a phase where I find it very hard to read religious books (which is a statement about my own condition, not about the books); but after many years I am now able to read poetry again. I cannot present modern poets in a chronological sequence expressing a general recovery of discovery of religious faith, as I did with the loss of faith--but only point to individuals who found their own way out of doubt and despair. I do not claim that poets must be right; they have ventured down many paths, and some proved to be dead ends. Where they found new insights, these have been explored by theologians too; and some poets such as Dante and Blake have expounded religious philosophies. Indeed Carol Murphy, a contemporary Friend, suggests that "The deepest truths can be conveyed only in poetry, and Christian theology, truly seen, is not a set of dusty propositions, nor a dreamy fairy-tale, but the highest poetry, full of illuminating images and brilliant paradoxes."
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Findings: Poets and the Crisis of Faith
Findings: Poets and the Crisis of Faith
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940157160173 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pendle Hill Publications |
| Publication date: | 03/22/2017 |
| Series: | Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #310 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 134 KB |
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