Images of Redemption: Understanding Soteriology Through Art and Literature 9780567660589, 9780567088949
After discussing the “arts of redemption” and their rivals, and introducing soteriology, the theology of salvation, Patr
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English Pages [215] Year 2003
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- Patrick Sherry
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Many artists and writers seem, at times, to be more concerned to depict the evil, ugliness, disorder, and unhappiness of a fallen world than to celebrate the beauty of creation. Whilst some of them just do this and, as it were, rub our noses in it, others do so as a prelude to showing us possibilities of liberation: for themes like achieving goals in the face of obstacles, overcoming hardship, return home from war or exile, learning through suffering, and indeed, more generally, what Shakespeare called 'the uses of adversity' are perennial ones in art and literature. For religious believers the deepest forms of liberation are described in terms like 'salvation', 'enlightenment', 'release', and 'redemption' - what are called soteriological terms. There are many examples of art and literature that seek to convey such forms of liberation, especially in Christianity: I shall call them, following John W. Dixon, the 'arts of redemption'. They include works that express fundamental reactions like repentance and forgiveness, and ones that represent or describe possibilities of redemption being worked out in human lives. My purpose in this book is to consider such art and literature, and to see what light they shed on Christian teaching on salvation and redemption; thereby it may serve as an introduction to such teaching. I shall argue that in many cases art and literature are primary expressions of religious ideas, and that, therefore, they may give us a more immediate, and sometimes deeper, understanding of these ideas than is offered by theology. You may on occasion learn more about redemption from a novel than from a theological treatise. I shall not attempt to give a comprehensive view of such art and literature or even to cover all genres equally, for my purpose