Way to Water: A Theopoetics Primer
Way to Water: A Theopoetics Primer
Project Summary
This book gives an account of the rise of the term and movement of "theopoetics," a way of approaching theological reflection in ways that honor creative practice. Beginning with the work of Stanley Hopper in the late 1960s, and addressing the early scholarship of key theopoetics authors like Rubem Alves and Amos Wilder, this text explores how theopoetics was originally developed as a response to the American death-of-God movement, and has since grown into a method for engaging in theological thought in a way that more fully honors embodiment and aesthetic dimensions of human experience.
Approach
The text includes an exploration of how theopoetic insights might aid in the development of tangible church practices, and concludes with a series of theopoetic reflections.
Why conduct this research?
Prior to this text there was no history of theopoetics available in one book, not any sustained consideration of how theopoetics might be practiced in community.
Most of the extant literature in the field is addressed to allow for a cumulative and comprehensive articulation of the nature and function of theopoetics.