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Short Abstract: This thesis addresses how God’s grace – i.e., abiding presence to and action in creation – can be found operating in the writer, the writing, and the reader of fiction. In my introductory chapter, I propose that great literature, even self-consciously non-religious literature, can serve as a propaedeutic to religious attention, attuning the reader of words to God’s gracious presence in and through creation (the Incarnate Word). I assess this proposal by looking at the fiction of writers Virginia Woolf (an agnostic) and Marilynne Robinson (a confessional Christian). Good literature, like other art forms, can serve as a field of ‘play’ (Spiel for Gadamer) where an author helps her reader become conscious of the ‘natural attitude’ (Husserl) of his relationship to the world of objects and states of affairs in the text, and thereafter in the world around himself. To do so, I adapt Husserl’s phenomenology of intentionality to propose a ‘phenomenology of literature’ which includes resurrecting the purportedly ‘dead’ author. I draw out the theological implications of this phenomenology with the help of Nicholas of Cusa and Jean-Louis Chrétien: creation is the locus where the divine Author ‘unfolds’ (explicatio) God’s gracious presence, appealing to creatures who are always-already enfolded (complicatio) in the foregrounding activity of God. The creature then becomes ‘attuned’ to God’s gracious call, so as to make a theological return (reductio) to God beyond the ‘text’ of the world. In like measure, a text world unfolds from the creative vision of the author, appealing to and directing her reader’s intentional gaze. The text becomes an heuristic tool for the reader’s intentional attention: when a reader ‘brackets’ his natural attitude to the world and ‘descends’ into the text, the unseen author is able to train her reader’s intentional gaze empathically, to see the pluralities in the text as the author has framed them. In response the reader can accept or reject the author’s intentional framing, but he cannot ignore it. I argue that the literary descent-ascent is always-already enfolded in creation, which itself unfolds from the life of God. Hence when the reader ‘ascends’ from the text back to the world around him, his intentional attitude to the world has been inflected – however imperceptibly – by the intentionality of the unseen author. This descent-ascent movement, theologically speaking, prepares the reader of creation to thematize his ‘unformed attunement’ (Rahner) both to the divine Author, and to the intersubjective communities (literary as well as historically religious) in which such thematizing takes place. The strength of this methodology – a theological engagement with literature grounded in intentionality – depends on what William Lynch calls the descent into the concrete particulars of literary texts. To that end, I analyze the works of non-believer Virginia Woolf and those of believer Marilynne Robinson, to test the merits of my proposed theological framework. Both writers deftly probe language and genre boundaries, disrupt uncritical acceptance (or rejection) of institutional faith, and engage in creative wondering and wandering ‘away from home.’ Such fiction is thus a locus theologicus, where belief and unbelief interact, interrogate one another, and challenge the reader to deeper theological reflection. New aspects of characters, and competing voices within texts, move the reader’s attention from parts to a sense of the whole, and back again. Hence Woolf and Robinson cultivate in readers what I term a katholic imagination (kath’holou, “regarding the whole” of reality). Such an imagination fosters a psychological openness to growth; a willingness to take seriously unattended, unbidden, or unwelcome elements of reality, including the experience (or absence) of divine grace. God plays ‘away from home’ by unfolding (explicatio) God’s very self into finite creation (the Incarnation), so as to make creation’s very enfoldedness (complicatio) conscious to creatures. Hence it is Christ – playing in ten thousand places – whose descent into created particularity attunes us to God’s grace. This grace is operative beyond the usual registers and instrumentation of theological discourse, and so the attentive theologian must engage with literature, among other disciplines.

This dissertation examines Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s theological and literary legacy in the 20th century. My argument does not represent a direct study of Coleridge or his poetry, but rather an analysis of the ways in which Coleridge’s thought has been appropriated (and misappropriated) in recent debates over the nature of the creative imagination. My objective is to trace a genealogy of Coleridge’s influence on theories of the relationship between literary and theological forms of knowledge. To this end, my study attends to competing conceptions of imaginative literature as an irreducible mode of doing theology or apprehending theological claims. I focus on a debate that unfolds between four self-styled successors to Coleridge: T.S. Eliot, Owen Barfield, Harold Bloom, and Geoffrey Hill. I identify in this lineage of poet-theologians a tacit dispute that turns on competing interpretations of Coleridge’s theory of the imagination: particularly what it means to say the imagination is ‘incarnational’, that it can create or ‘body forth’ contingent knowledge in poetry. I situate this debate with respect to the emergence of ‘theology and literature’ as a discrete field of inquiry in the 20th century in the work of figures like Nathan Scott, Martha Nussbaum, Rowan Williams, and Michael Hurley. I ultimately argue that the subdiscipline of theology and literature is, in ways seldom acknowledged, a fundamentally Coleridgean venture; that while Coleridge is often reduced to a footnote in the field, recent practices in theology and literature are more productively understood as a series of competitive responses or footnotes to Coleridge.

The aim of this thesis is a theological reflection of contemporary Czech poetry. Specifically, the thesis deals with collections Úloža by Ivan Martin Jirous, Darmata by Petr Hruška and Osip míří na jih by Marie Iljašenko. It focuses mainly on their concepts of man, the world and transcendence. The work is divided into three chapters, the first two being a necessary prelude for chapter three. The first part of the thesis presents some of the ways in which theology can relate to poetry. Language, imagination and metaphor are presented as common fields of both theology and poetry. Furthermore, this chapter defines two possible theological approaches to poetry: The theological approach to poetry as an object of theology and as a subject of theology. In the second chapter, there is literary analysis of the collections, which is necessary for the third part. In the third part, which is the main focus of this thesis, a theological reflection of selected collections is presented. Its aim is not only to examine whether and how the selected themes in the collections correlate with their conception in theology, but also to present what they may be inspirational for theology.

O campo de estudos em Teologia e Literatura está consolidado no contexto brasileiro. A proposta do grupo teopatodiceia visa situar este diálogo da teologia como pergunta pelo sentido de Deus na busca de sentido humana e oferta de uma racionalidade crítica a um sistema de crença tendo a literatura como interlocutora privilegiada, mas também outras formas de narrativas e expressões artísticas da condição humana. Nesse sentido, o elemento antropológico visa não somente o diálogo com a antropologia literária mas considera também, desde um projeto de arqueologia do saber teológico, a produção de subjetividades implicadas (pathos) nos saberes em diálogo e nos modelos epistemológicos que melhor favorecem a elaboração de uma teologia pública, plural e contrahegemônica a fim de discernir modos de se responsabilizar por uma agenda pública desde uma sensibilidade ética (diké) comum aos dilemas contemporâneos. A literatura ocupa um papel importante de heterologia no diálogo com a teologia. Como uma abordagem interdisciplinar, o projeto arqueológico se nutre dos percursos teóricos de autores como Antonio Manzatto, Paul Ricoeur, Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau e David Tracy. Numa crítica à autorreferencialidade teológica, a via dialógica, interdisciplinar e intercultural da perspectiva teológica do grupo se aloca no conjunto das ciências humanas., The field of Theology and Literature is well established in the Brazilian context. The proposal of the research group teopatodiceia (theopathodicy) is to situate the dialogue of theology as a question for the meaning of God within human seeking of meaning; and to offer a critical rationality for a system of beliefs having literature as a privileged interlocutor, as well as other forms of narratives and artistic expressions of the human condition. Thus, the anthropological element aims, not only a dialogue with a literary anthropology, but, within the project of an archaeology of knowledge, it considers the productions of subjectivities implicated (pathos) in the different knowledges in dialogue and in the epistemological models that better favor the elaboration of a plural and counter hegemonical public theology to discern modes of becoming responsible for a public agenda based on an ethical sensibility (dike) common to contemporary dilemma. Literature occupies a significant role as an heterology in the dialogue with theology. As an interdisciplinary approach, the archaeological project draws from the theoretical background of authors such as Antonio Manzatto, Paul Ricoeur, Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau, and David Tracy. In a critique to theology’s self-referentiality the dialogical, interdisciplinary, and intercultural theological perspective of the group is grounded in the whole of human sciences.

Resumen Este artículo hace una descripción de un método de investigación teológica, de carácter interdisciplinar, desarrollado en diálogo con el mundo de la literatura. En la base se encuentra la tesis doctoral Comprensión teo-literaria de la salvación: Aportes de la narrativa de Alejo Carpentier para una soteriología contemporánea. De los precursores de la hermenéutica filosófica contemporánea (Heidegger, Gadamer y Ricoeur) se obtiene la noción de comprensión que está en la base de este estudio (que permite pensar la salvación ante la existencia) y el método que le da su estructura general a la investigación (pre-comprensión, expansión del horizonte comprensor y re comprensión). La pregunta investigativa y la perspectiva de análisis la aporta la teología (primer momento). Para la expansión del horizonte comprensor (segundo momento), juega un papel clave la literatura. Respecto de su aporte, se destacan dos niveles complementarios: el antropológico y el sociohistórico, de los que se obtiene una visión de la realidad transfigurada por la obra literaria. Se llega así a dimensiones de lo real que normalmente se disimulan y permanecen ocultas a nuestros ojos. Del cruce de la primera y segunda parte (tercer momento) resulta un interesante ejercicio teo-literario de indudable riqueza para el pensar teológico. En la descripción de este método de investigación, de ahí su importancia, se destaca el valor que tiene para la teología el diálogo con el mundo de la literatura, en este caso, ante la pregunta que existiendo el ser humano dirige al Misterio santo del que depende su liberación, trascendencia, sentido y esperanza, en definitiva, su salvación. Abstract This article corresponds to a description of an interdisciplinary theological research method, developed in dialogue with the world of literature. At the base is the doctoral tesis titled Theo-literary understanding of salvation: Contributions of the narrative of Alejo Carpentier for a contemporary soteriology. From the precursors of contemporary philosophical hermeneutics (Heidegger, Gadamer and Ricoeur) we obtain the notion of understanding that is at the base of this study (which allows us to think about salvation in the face of existence) and the method that gives its general structure to research (pre-understanding, expansion of the understanding horizon and re-understanding). The research question and the analytical perspective are provided by theology (first moment). For the expansion of the understanding horizon (second moment), literature plays a key role. Regarding its contribution, two complementary levels stand out: the anthropological and the sociohistorical, from which a vision of reality transfigured by the literary work is obtained. In this way, dimensions of reality are reached that are normally concealed and remain hidden from our eyes. The crossing of the first and second part (third moment) results in an interesting theo-literary exercise of undoubted richness for theological thinking. In the description of this research method, hence its importance, the value that dialogue with the world of literature has for theology is highlighted, in this case, when faced with the question that the human being exists and directs to the Holy Mystery of which they depend on their liberation, transcendence, meaning and hope, ultimately, their salvation.

Fundacional para a perceção e expressão do mistério, a linguagem poética é lugar de uma articulação paradoxal, nada acrescentando à representação descritiva do mundo. Encontrando-se o positivismo teológico em crise, paradigma que sempre cedeu demasiado à obsessão pela verdade, tem-se vindo a notar um crescente interesse pelo estudo teológico de produções literárias como lugares de redenção da linguagem referencial, própria do discurso tradicional da teologia. Na sua performatividade quase litúrgica, a linguagem poética aproxima o objeto do discurso teológico do seu eixo verdadeiramente referencial: a transluminosa treva do Silêncio (Pseudo-Dionísio).

O presente artigo pretende apresentar uma possibilidade de resgate semântico do topos como lugar de unidade entre a poética e a política, como propõe Giorgio Agamben. Tal unidade pode ser lida como desdobramento da relação entre poética e retórica desde Aristóteles, recuperando a ideia de poíesis da pólis, assim como tal relação é constituva de uma visão antitrágica da póetica cristã, como também sugere Agamben, e que pode ser idenfiticada no imaginário teológico narrativo do autor russo Vladimir Korolento., This aim of this paper is to present a possibility of topos acute accent semantic rescue as a place of unity between poetics and politics, as proposed by Giorgio Agamben. Such unity can be read as an unfolding of the relationship between poetics and rhetoric since Aristotle, recovering the idea of poiesis of the polis, just as this relationship constituted an anti-tragic view of Christian poetry, as also suggested by Agamben, and which can be identified in the imaginary theological narrative by Russian author Vladimir Korolento.

O objetivo deste artigo é oferecer categorias que ajudem a refletir o evento pandemia em seu impacto cultural, que inaugura um tempo de busca de revisão de mentalidade, face às fragilidades que se desvelam na ocasião. Neste sentido, o evento pandêmico pode ser ligo à luz do romance Ensaio sobre a Cegueira de 1995, do escritor português José Saramago, desde uma perspectiva lacaniana sobre o papel do imaginário no desafio cultural de integração da alteridade. Tanto o romance português como o referencial lacaniano de alteridade tem sido objeto de hermenêuticas teológicas que indicam seu potencial de elucidação teórica do momento histórico que se vive no Ocidente, em que a alteridade se apresenta como um desafio dos novos tempos. Neste sentido, o evento pandemia se apresenta também como alteridade radical que desvela a real condição em que se encontra a sociedade e cultura contemporânea., The aim of this paper is to offer categories that help to reflect the pandemic event in its cultural impact, which inaugurates a time to search for understanding and a mentality review, in the face of the weaknesses that are unveiled at the time. In this sense, the pandemic event can be linked in the light of the 1995's novel Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, by the Portuguese writer José Saramago, from a Lacanian perspective on the role of the imaginary in the cultural challenge of integrating alterity. Both the Portuguese novel and the Lacanian reference of alterity have been the object of theological hermeneuticsthat indicate their potential for theoretical elucidation of the historical moment in the West, when alterity presents itself as a challenge of the new times, including religion. In this sense, the pandemic event also presents itself as a radical alterity that reveals the real condition in which contemporary society and culture finds itself.

The field of Theology and Literature is well established in the Brazilian context. The proposal of the research group teopatodiceia (theopathodicy) is to situate the dialogue of theology as a question for the meaning of God within human seeking of meaning; and to offer a critical rationality for a system of beliefs having literature as a privileged interlocutor, as well as other forms of narratives and artistic expressions of the human condition. Thus, the anthropological element aims, not only a dialogue with a literary anthropology, but, within the project of an archaeology of knowledge, it considers the productions of subjectivities implicated (pathos) in the different knowledges in dialogue and in the epistemological models that better favor the elaboration of a plural and counter hegemonical public theology to discern modes of becoming responsible for a public agenda based on an ethical sensibility (dike) common to contemporary dilemma. Literature occupies a significant role as an heterology in the dialogue with theology. As an interdisciplinary approach, the archaeological project draws from the theoretical background of authors such as Antonio Manzatto, Paul Ricoeur, Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau, and David Tracy. In a critique to theology’s self-referentiality the dialogical, interdisciplinary, and intercultural theological perspective of the group is grounded in the whole of human sciences. O campo de estudos em Teologia e Literatura está consolidado no contexto brasileiro. A proposta do grupo teopatodiceia visa situar este diálogo da teologia como pergunta pelo sentido de Deus na busca de sentido humana e oferta de uma racionalidade crítica a um sistema de crença tendo a literatura como interlocutora privilegiada, mas também outras formas de narrativas e expressões artísticas da condição humana. Nesse sentido, o elemento antropológico visa não somente o diálogo com a antropologia literária mas considera também, desde um projeto de arqueologia do saber teológico, a produção de subjetividades implicadas (pathos) nos saberes em diálogo e nos modelos epistemológicos que melhor favorecem a elaboração de uma teologia pública, plural e contrahegemônica a fim de discernir modos de se responsabilizar por uma agenda pública desde uma sensibilidade ética (diké) comum aos dilemas contemporâneos. A literatura ocupa um papel importante de heterologia no diálogo com a teologia. Como uma abordagem interdisciplinar, o projeto arqueológico se nutre dos percursos teóricos de autores como Antonio Manzatto, Paul Ricoeur, Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau e David Tracy. Numa crítica à autorreferencialidade teológica, a via dialógica, interdisciplinar e intercultural da perspectiva teológica do grupo se aloca no conjunto das ciências humanas.

O presente artigo pretende apresentar uma possibilidade de resgate semântico do topos como lugar de unidade entre a poética e a política, como propõe Giorgio Agamben. Tal unidade pode ser lida como desdobramento da relação entre poética e retórica desde Aristóteles, recuperando a ideia de poíesis da pólis, assim como tal relação é constituva de uma visão antitrágica da póetica cristã, como também sugere Agamben, e que pode ser idenfiticada no imaginário teológico narrativo do autor russo Vladimir Korolento., This aim of this paper is to present a possibility of topos acute accent semantic rescue as a place of unity between poetics and politics, as proposed by Giorgio Agamben. Such unity can be read as an unfolding of the relationship between poetics and rhetoric since Aristotle, recovering the idea of poiesis of the polis, just as this relationship constituted an anti-tragic view of Christian poetry, as also suggested by Agamben, and which can be identified in the imaginary theological narrative by Russian author Vladimir Korolento.

This article presents the preliminary results of a research developed in order to present an investigation of the way in which the Canadian writer Michael David O’Brien made wide use, in the novel “Voyage to Alpha Centauri” (2013), of literary devices to convey theological ideas. For the analysis of the role of the diary’s writing - made by the character Neil Ruiz de Hoyos - the reflections presented by Blanchot (2005) about the main elements that are part of a diary were used. As memory is one of the fundamental components of writing a diary, Assman’s (2011) observations regarding the relationship between writing and memory will be used. As for the definition and use of the symbol in literary writing, thereflection developed by Frye (1973) will be applied. The relations between the Sacred Scriptures and their figures present in literary writing will be read from Frye (2004). Finally, the symbols and their theological and mystical implications will be analyzed according to the studies made by Chevalier & Gheerbrant (1993), Léon-Dufour (1970) and Morgain (2003). It was seen, therefore, that O’Brien’s writing in this novel makes extensive use of theological and mystical symbols to represent ideas that pursue Neil Ruiz de Hoyos.

The Northern Irish author C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the outstanding Christian thinkers of the last century. A prolific author, he moved through different areas, such as literary criticism, youth literature, science fiction, and texts of theological exposition and of apologetics. In science fiction there is his remarkable “Cosmic Trilogy”: Beyond the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. In these three books, Lewis presents a vast array of themes. Among these is angelology,the systematic study of heavenly beings known as angels. The aim of this article is to present the major influences that Lewis used to build his angelology: old Jewish literature, exemplified in texts such as the Ethiopian Enoch (or the Book of Enoch or First Enoch), and the biblical tradition itself. The article will seek also to defend the hypothesis that, using fiction, Lewis builds an imaginative and suggestive theology that is a critique of the rationalism of continental theology of his day. RESUMO O escritor norte-irlandês C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) foi um dos mais destacados pensadores cristãos do século passado. Autor de vasta obra, transitou por áreas como crítica literária, literatura infanto-juvenil, ficção científica e textos de exposição teológica e apologética propriamente. Na categoria ficção científica destaca-se a assim chamada “Trilogia Cósmica”: Além do planeta silencioso, Perelandra e Aquela fortaleza medonha. Nestes três livros Lewis apresenta grande gama de temas. Dentre tantos, a angelologia - o estudo sistematizado dos seres celestiais conhecidos como anjos. O objetivo do presente artigo é apresentar as principais influências que Lewis utilizou para construir sua angeologia, literatura judaica antiga, representada por textos como o Enoque Etíope (ou Livro de Enoque ou 1Enoque) e a tradição bíblica. Procurar-se-á também defender a hipótese que, com o recurso da literatura de ficção, Lewis constrói uma teologia imaginativa e sugestiva que é uma crítica ao racionalismo da teologia continental de seu tempo.

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O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar e analisar o debate teórico a respeito do que ficou conhecido como Método Antropológico de diálogo entre Teologia e Literatura desde a publicação da obra Teologia e Literatura – Reflexão Teológica a partir da Antropologia contida nos Romances de Jorge Amado de Antonio Manzatto em 1994, um marco de referência que inaugura o campo de pesquisa no Brasil. O presente trabalho visa uma análise da crítica de Antonio Magalhães da obra de Manzatto em seu livro Deus no Espelho das palavras, de 2000 para em seguida verificar em que medida isso se aplica no trabalho de Manzatto, assim como há uma contribuição para o campo com tal debate. Para tal pretende-se identificar algumas influencias na teologia manzatiana para melhor delinear compreender algumas de suas categorias., The aim of this paper is to introduce and analyze the theoretical debate about what became known as the Anthropological Method of dialogue between Theology and Literature since the publication of the work Teologia e Literatura – Reflexão Teológica a partir da Antropologia contida nos Romances de Jorge Amado by Antonio Manzatto in 1994. It became a landmark opens the field of research in Brazil. The present work aims at an analysis of the criticism of Antonio Magalhães of Manzatto’s work in his book Deus no Espelho das palavras, in 2000. Subsequently, it proposes verifying how the criticism focuses on Manzatto’s work and what is the contribution to the theopoetic studies. To this end, it is intend to identify some influences in Manzatian theology to better outline some of its categories.

Daniel Faria é um dos mais impressivos poetas portugueses do final do século XX. Nasceu em 1971 e morreu com 28 anos, em 1999 – era, então, noviço no mosteiro beneditino de Singeverga. Sendo um poeta místico, a sua obra – particularmente os seus três últimos livros: Explicação das árvores e de outros animais [1998], Homens que são como lugares mal situados [1998] e Dos líquidos [2000] – desdobra um fascinante diálogo entre o corpo e a morte, revelando uma rara tensão entre a imanência e a transcendência. E se a morte é um sistema na poesia de Daniel Faria, o corpo é uma gramática generativa, uma semântica conectiva, o sistema circulatório da sua sintaxe. Assim, o corpo – a corporeidade –, numa poesia mística como a deste poeta, revela um corpo difuso, um corpo que pesa e que interage com a realidade no limite de difíceis cedências, um corpo que existe e que – por isso – condena e é, ainda assim, no diálogo íntimo com a morte, precisamente por existir, uma possibilidade de salvação., Daniel Faria is one of the most impressive Portuguese poets of the late twentieth century. He was born in 1971 and deceased at the age of 28, in 1999 – he was then a novice at the Benedictine Monastery of Singeverga. As a mystic poet, his Work – particularly his last three books: Explicação das árvores e de outros animais [1998], Homens que são como lugares mal situados [1998] e Dos líquidos [2000] – discloses a fascinating dialogue between body and death, and thus revealing a rare tension between immanence and transcendence. But if death is a system in the poetry of Daniel Faria, the body is a generative gram-mar, a connective semantics, the circulatory system of its syntax. Therefore, the body (corporeality), embodied in such a mystical poetry, reveals a diffuse body, an unwieldy body, which interacts with reality at the limits of difficult indulgences. An existing body that, for that reason, condemns, but in an intimate dialogue with death is still, by the means of existence itself, a possibility of salvation.