Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination is an edited collection at the intersection of theology, religion, and philosophy and fantasy literature and table-top games. The volume begins with an invocation of the old magic of pre-modern theology and follows with analyses of classical Christian fantasy. The second section articulates a post-Christian turn in fantasy since the late twentieth century, arguing how fantasy can serve to re-enchant the imagination in ways that moves beyond traditional Christianity. The last section on fantasy at play explores how religion is at play in Dungeons and Dragons and in Magic: the Gathering.
1. Introduction: Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination
Andrew D. Thrasher and Austin M. Freeman
Part I: Invocations
2. The Old Magic
Nicholas Adams
Part II: Classical Christian Fantasy: Renewing Christian Imagination
3. Sins of the Imagination
Austin M. Freeman
4. C.S. Lewis, Apologetics, and the Imagination: Breaking the Spell of
Secularism
Alison Milbank
5. Between Tolkien and the Philosophers: Greek and Scholastic Theories of
Phantasia
Giovanni Carmine Costabile
Part III: Post-Christian Fantasy: Opening the Door Beyond
6. Why Theology Should Always Be Fantasy: Imagination, Fantasy, and
Science-Fictional Messianism in the Writings of Rabbi Shagar
Levi Morrow
7. Theology in Shadow: Sin and Redemption in Ursula K. Le Guins A Wizard of
Earthsea
Oliver D. Crisp
8. Cosmology as Agnostic Self-Actualization in Terry Pratchetts Discworld
U-Wen Low
9. Fantastic Inter-Religious Resourcement in Robert Jordan and David Eddings
Andrew D. Thrasher
10. The Hero as God: An Exploration of Mormon Soteriology in the Fantasy
Novels of Orson Scott Card and Brandon Sanderson
Josh Herring
Part IV: Fantasy at Play: Theologizing with Fantastic Games
11. Imaginative Hermeneutical Theology: Paul Ricoeur and Dungeons & Dragons
Scott Donahue-Martens
12. Magic: The Gathering and Meaning: The Theological Outlook of the Worlds
Most Complex Game
Jacob Torbeck
Andrew D. Thrasher is an adjunct instructor of Religious Studies at George Mason University and Tidewater Community College.
Austin M. Freeman teaches at Houston Christian University and Kings College New York.
