Overview
To read the Bible well, we need to employ our imagination. This volume is the first book-length study that takes the Bible's imaginative nature seriously. It integrates insights from disciplines like neuroscience, metaphor theory and cognition, translation theory, the affective sciences, humor studies, and the interdisciplinary study of imagination itself into the academic and theological study of the Bible.
Knut Heim and Jeffrey Oetter show that reading with imagination is a critical hermeneutic of engagement that fosters close, deep, lusciously savored, and pleasurable readings of the biblical texts. Bringing current scholarship from a variety of disciplines to bear on biblical interpretation, this book explains that Scripture employs often subtle literary techniques--including figurative language, emotions, and humor--that require imagination to recognize and interpret. Imagination helps us develop genuinely biblical ideas that get us closer to the meaning intended by the Holy Spirit and the original authors, resulting in more accurate interpretations when paired with traditional approaches. Even textual aspects that have until now remained odd, foreign, and confusing can become occasions for imaginative engagement that reveal new meaning and significance.
A Hermeneutic of Imagination makes the case that reading with imagination is crucial for unlocking the Bible's full potential because it transforms academic study of the Bible into aesthetically inspiring, intellectually stimulating, emotionally rewarding, theologically rich, and spiritually transformative adventures of the mind that contribute to problem-solving and human flourishing today.
Knut Heim and Jeffrey Oetter show that reading with imagination is a critical hermeneutic of engagement that fosters close, deep, lusciously savored, and pleasurable readings of the biblical texts. Bringing current scholarship from a variety of disciplines to bear on biblical interpretation, this book explains that Scripture employs often subtle literary techniques--including figurative language, emotions, and humor--that require imagination to recognize and interpret. Imagination helps us develop genuinely biblical ideas that get us closer to the meaning intended by the Holy Spirit and the original authors, resulting in more accurate interpretations when paired with traditional approaches. Even textual aspects that have until now remained odd, foreign, and confusing can become occasions for imaginative engagement that reveal new meaning and significance.
A Hermeneutic of Imagination makes the case that reading with imagination is crucial for unlocking the Bible's full potential because it transforms academic study of the Bible into aesthetically inspiring, intellectually stimulating, emotionally rewarding, theologically rich, and spiritually transformative adventures of the mind that contribute to problem-solving and human flourishing today.
Table of Contents
1. Imagination and What It Has to Do with the Bible
2. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Allows Us to Enjoy the Literary Quality of Scripture
3. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Reveals the Theological Power of Scripture's Figurative Language
4. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Attunes Us to the Emotional Intentions of Scripture
5. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Draws Attention to the Humorous Dimensions of Scripture
6. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Informs Our Translation Theory and Practice
7. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Inspires Us to Conduct Our Academic Study of Scripture Theologically and to Undertake Our Theological Study Academically
8. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Expands Our Vision So We Embody the Moral Imagination of Scripture
Conclusion
Indexes
2. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Allows Us to Enjoy the Literary Quality of Scripture
3. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Reveals the Theological Power of Scripture's Figurative Language
4. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Attunes Us to the Emotional Intentions of Scripture
5. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Draws Attention to the Humorous Dimensions of Scripture
6. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Informs Our Translation Theory and Practice
7. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Inspires Us to Conduct Our Academic Study of Scripture Theologically and to Undertake Our Theological Study Academically
8. A Hermeneutic of Imagination Expands Our Vision So We Embody the Moral Imagination of Scripture
Conclusion
Indexes
Endorsements
“How refreshing to read a book that endorses imaginative and creative readings of Scripture! Heim and Oetter have given us renewed justification to look for the strange, the abnormal, and even the fantastical in the pages of the Bible and to celebrate the human mind’s ability to endlessly explore fresh possibilities of interpretation. They allow us to escape from narrow and constrictive readings and embrace humor, use of metaphor, and conflicting alternatives while firmly building on the imaginative contours of Scripture itself. This is a life-affirming, imaginative book that deserves a key place on your theological bookshelf!”
Katharine Dell, professor of Old Testament literature and theology, University of Cambridge
Author
Knut M. Heim
Knut Heim (PhD, University of Liverpool) is professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary in Littleton, Colorado, and the pastor at Deer Park United Methodist Church in Bailey, Colorado. He previously taught at The Queen's Foundation, University of Birmingham, and Trinity College, University of Bristol.