Book contents
- Theology and the Mythic Sensibility
- Reviews
- Theology and the Mythic Sensibility
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Myth/Making
- Part II Myth and Culture
- Chapter 4 The Mythopoieic Roots of Theology
- Chapter 5 Making toward God
- Chapter 6 Mythopoiesis and Difference
- Chapter 7 Taste and See
- Part III All in Christ
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 4 - The Mythopoieic Roots of Theology
from Part II - Myth and Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2024
- Theology and the Mythic Sensibility
- Reviews
- Theology and the Mythic Sensibility
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Myth/Making
- Part II Myth and Culture
- Chapter 4 The Mythopoieic Roots of Theology
- Chapter 5 Making toward God
- Chapter 6 Mythopoiesis and Difference
- Chapter 7 Taste and See
- Part III All in Christ
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
If a Christian account of mythopoiesis owns that not only do all things depend upon God for their being, but that ‘all things exist in Christ’, then following Ward, we can assert that mythopoiesis, as a cultural artefact, is shot through with God’s presence: it is a means by which God is revealing God’s self to us. To the degree a myth speaks truly of God it can be understood as participating in God’s self-disclosure to creation; to the degree it is enmeshed in and occluded by sin, myth speaks less truly. Following Henri de Lubac, I argue that the nature–grace distinction can be overstated and that a paradoxical affirmation of the operation of grace within nature without violating the proper autonomy of creation is necessary in order to meaningfully express how human action (mythopoiesis) apart from Christian formation can be said to speak of God (theology). The interplay of the cultural mediation of God’s grace and God’s already-there-ness in nature offers a way of speaking about mythopoiesis’ theological possibilities without necessarily resorting to a doctrine of ‘anonymous Christianity’.
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- Theology and the Mythic SensibilityHuman Myth-Making and Divine Creativity, pp. 77 - 89Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024