Chapter 4 - Theology as Literature, Rhetoric and Ideology

Summary

This chapter explores Christian theology’s relationship to the literary and the rhetorical to demonstrate the shifts that theology and biblical studies have made in light of David Jasper’s lament that they have “never really accepted the need” to come to terms with postmodern reflections on textuality.It does so through examining an underlying rhythm, vibration or attunement that Christian theology, literature and rhetoric share, one characterized as kenotic. The appeal to the primordiality of rhythm is well documented in postmodern philosophy, following in the wake of Nietzsche. It has surfaced as a theological category in the work of Erich Pryzwara, and the publication of Raimon Panikkar’s Gifford Lectures. The analysis begins with remarks from Roberto Calasso on rhythm and form in, and as, defining literature. It then explores the ‘kenotic’ nature of the operation of imagination. Some of the most important Christian theologians of the past were trained in rhetoric, and so in examining the imagination in both theological and the literary production, the chapter turns to why rhetoric is important for theological discourse, despite the dangers of ideological persuasion.