In a culture where institutional religion is in decline there is a pressing need for new theological strategies. Andrew Shanks argues for a fresh 'theological poetics', providing an eloquent first step towards meeting these needs and an alternative strategy for reconciling Christian theology with poetic truth.

Andrew Shanks is a Church of England priest in North Yorkshire. He is the author of God and Modernity (Routledge, 2000), Civil Society, Civil Religion (Blackwell, 1995) and Hegel's Political Theology (Cambridge University Press, 1991).

Part I First principles; Chapter 1 Faith: poetry versus metaphysical opinion; Chapter 2 Confessions of a traitorous clerc; Chapter 3 The 'pathos of shakenness'; Chapter 4 'Mythic theology'; Part II Case studies; Chapter 5 The heritage of Amos; Chapter 6 A shaken sacramentalism; Chapter 7 Blake; Chapter 8 Hölderlin; Chapter 9 'After Auschwitz'; Part III Conclusion; Chapter 10 Incredulity and liturgy; Chapter 11 Envoi;