Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination

by Andrew D. Thrasher (Editor), Fotini Toso (primary_contributor), Austin M. Freeman (Editor)

Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination offers analyses of the theological, philosophical, and religious imagination found in fantasy literature, the theological imagination, and table-top games. Part I offers an invocation to the study through a theological reflection of the “old magic.” Part II analyzes classical Christian fantasy—ranging from dogmatic theological reflection on the fantastic imagination to analyses of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Part III analyzes the post-Christian turn in fantasy after about 1960 through today—featuring methodological, theological, and philosophical essays that reflect a movement beyond Christianity in the fantasy literature and writings of Rabbi Shagar, Ursula le Guin, Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan and David Eddings, and Brandon Sanderson and Orson Scott Card. Part IV closes with two analyses of the religious and philosophical dimensions of table-top games, including Dungeons and Dragons and the Gathering. Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination offers astute analyses of how theological fantasy actually is by articulating the religious, philosophical, and theological dimensions of the fantastic imagination.

238 pages, Hardcover

First published July 31, 2023

Reviews

[Timothy Lawrence]

"The early Christian theologian Tertullian famously posed the question, 'What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?' What, in other words, does pagan philosophy – an effort of human reason to answer the ultimate questions of reality – have to do with a faith founded on divinely revealed answers to those same questions?

Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination (edited by Andrew D. Thrasher and Austin M. Freeman) raises a similar question: What has fantasy to do with theology? Theology is the study of God – which is to say, the study of Reality Himself. On the other hand, Fantasy is, by definition, make-believe. At a first glance, these two fields of study might seem simply irrelevant to one another; at a second, they might seem outright opposed.

Thrasher and Freeman suggest that this dilemma can be solved by the third key term in the title: Imagination. Theology and fantasy are akin in that they are both imaginative projects. Theology concerns itself with a reality that is beyond the direct experience of our senses and thus must necessarily be known by the imagination – the same faculty that underwrites fantasy. The book centers around this trifecta: because theology and fantasy have imagination in common, they not only become relevant to each other, they can talk to one another, and the conversation can go both ways: theology can inform fantasy, and fantasy can inform theology. Fantasy can both 'implicitly articulate what we believe' and 'help us imagine a world that is still enchanted.'

Drawing from C.S. Lewis' famous statement that the fantasy of George MacDonald 'baptized' his imagination, a crucial step in his conversion to Christianity, Thrasher and Freeman suggest that the 'baptism of the imagination' shapes what it is plausible or even possible to believe: 'fantasy functions as a tool to shape the conditions for belief.; At the same time, fantasy is unavoidably shaped by the beliefs of those who make it. Each essay in the book concerns itself in some way with this back-and-forth dialogue between theology and fantasy, and in so doing demonstrates fantasy's potential as a tool for serious theological work, rather than just a frivolous, escapist hobby."

Excited to have my first-ever book review published at VoegelinView:
https://voegelinview.com/the-theology...