|
|
Article: The Character of God: Recovering the Lost Literary Power of American Protestantism.(Review)
- Article from:
- First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life
- Article date:
- April 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Institute on Religion and Public Life. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
THE CHARACTER OF GOD: RECOVERING THE LOST LITERARY POWER OF AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM. By THOMAS E. JENKINS. Oxford University Press. 272 pp. $45.
THEOLOGIANS MOVE IN tWO worlds, working not only with the abstract categories of philosophy but also with the highly concrete and often complex literary forms of the Bible. One of the central tasks of biblical theology is to provide a description of God that is compelling as well as truthful. If literary form is important to the theologian's task, then it follows that he must uncover names of God that are beautiful.
The past three decades have seen a host of theologians and literary critics focus their attention ...