Theological Method and Imagination (Julian Hartt Library) [Paperback]

What kind of reality can be perceived when the core problems of theology are freed from dependency upon highly technical and arcane ways of thinking and speaking? Writing with the logical clarity and critical acumen for which he is well-known in theological circles, Julian N. Hartt demonstrates the reality of theology's problems and shows how they can be perceived as part of a divine restiveness in living. Hartt finds the demands of revelation to be most profoundly registered upon the imagination-that power of the spirit by which the shape of things to come is grasped. Sensing a great hunger for fresh approaches to fundamental theological concerns, Hartt presents a boldly original scholarly work. In it the persistent theological puzzles about method are clarified, the elements of that method are described and major historical controversies about method are critiqued. Topics discussed include: beliefs and reasons, knowing and proving God, faith and hope, authority and scripture, revelation and historical evidence. A significant contribution to theology, this book shows that theological method entails describing the ways in which faith makes sense. Doing this, it speaks about incorrigible beliefs, those convictions so fundamental that without them the very sense of life and world would disappear. Sensing that society has begun to think of theological matters as mere inventions of theologians, Hartt seeks to return to those fundamental questions that are the concrete situation of the serious-minded Christian in the contemporary world.

Julian Norris Hartt is a graduate of Dakota Wesleyan University, Garrett Theological Seminary, Northwestern University (M.A.), and Yale University (Ph.D.). From 1932 to 1934, Dr. Hartt served as a minister of United Methodist churches in South Dakota. He has taught theology and philosophy at Berea College (1940-43) and Yale University (1943-53) and was Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale (1953-72). Hartt is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He is the author of numerous articles, essays, and books including 'Humanism Versus Theism', 'Toward a Theology of Evangelism', 'Being Known and Being Revealed', 'A Christian Critique of American Culture', and 'Theology and the Church in the University'.