Literature

Abstract

Radical theology continues and challenges the parallels and legacies of religion and literature in its relationships to imagination. Although radical theologians most often identify as Christian, for many, imaginative literature is more central to their arguments than a re-evaluation of scripture or doctrine. Religion, scripture, and theology are historically rooted in the idea of God-authored stories and part of what radical theologians tend to do is to question traditional narratives; they cast doubt on clear authorship, pure origins, and teleological progressions to promised ends. This chapter examines radical theology’s engagement with modernist literature over the second half of the twentieth century before proposing new, alternative directions for future radical theologies of literature.