The imagination has been called, 'the principal organ for knowing and responding to disclosures of transcendent truth'. This book probes the theological sources of the imagination, which make it a vital tool for knowing and responding to such disclosures. Kerry Dearborn approaches areas of theology and imagination through a focus on the nineteenth century theologian and writer George MacDonald. MacDonald can be seen as an icon whose life and work open a window to the intersection of word, flesh and image. He communicated the gospel through narrative and image-rich forms which honour truth and address the intellectual, imaginative, spiritual, and emotional needs of his readers. MacDonald was also able to speak prophetically in a number of areas of contemporary concern, such as the nature of suffering, aging and death, environmental degradation, moral imagination and gender issues. Dearborn explores influences which shaped him, along with the wisdom he has offeredin the formation of significant Christian writers in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Authors such as C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, W.H. Auden, Frederick Buechner and others attribute to MacDonald key paradigm shifts and insights in their own lives. A study of MacDonald does not offer a formulaic approach to theology and the imagination, but the possibility of gleaning from his rich harvest relevant nourishment for our own day. It also provides a context in which to assess potential weaknesses in imaginative approaches to theology.

Examining a range of Coleridge's writings, this book uses recent scientific research to understand how we have evolved to make mental representations of the counterfactual, how such transformative essays in Imagination have enabled humans to survive, to prosper and to express themselves in the sciences, the arts and particularly in poetry.

How much truth can you handle? What if the traditional things you were taught in church, synagogue, mosque, or temple are no longer relevant to your lifewhat if religion itself were not actually based on reality? Through the writings of his prophets and disciples in every major religion, the God of Moses has proven that he does whatever he wants with whoever he wants whenever he wants. But we do not have to accept this truththere is another way, a universal spiritual path to serenity and contentment for all people. In Theofatalism: Personal Reformation for Troubled Souls, author Lewis Tagliaferre reveals the totality of Theofatalism, the truth-based belief system he established through extensive study and revelatory experiences in Sedona, Arizona, following the untimely death of his wife and the subsequent collapse of his faith in traditional Christian mores. Theofatalism provided Tagliaferre with a new belief system that enabled him to survive and even grow from great tragedy. Tagliaferres indispensible collection of essays blends his personal experiences with the wisdom and knowledge of historians, scientists, gurus, and sages of diverse cultures, philosophies, and beliefs. The principles around which he reformed his perception of self and the world can never be created; they can only be discovered, understood, and shared.

In The Imagination in Early Modern English Literature, Deanna Smid presents a literary, historical account of imagination in early modern English literature, paying special attention to its effects on the body, to its influence on women, to its restraint by reason, and to its ability to create novelty. An early modern definition of imagination emerges in the work of Robert Burton, Francis Bacon, Edward Reynolds, and Margaret Cavendish. Smid explores a variety of literary texts, from Thomas Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveler to Francis Quarles’s Emblems, to demonstrate the literary consequences of the early modern imagination. The Imagination in Early Modern English Literature insists that, if we are to call an early modern text “imaginative,” we must recognize the unique characteristics of early modern English imagination, in all its complexity.

The great Victorian Christian author George MacDonald is the well-spring of the modern fantasy genre. In this book Colin Manlove offers explorations of MacDonald's eight shorter fairy tales and his longer stories At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, The Wise Woman, and The Princess and Curdie. MacDonald saw the imagination as the source of fairy tales and of divine truth together. For he believed that God lives in the depths of the human mind and “sends up from thence wonderful gifts into the light of the understanding.” This makes MacDonald that very rare thing: a writer of mystical fiction whose work can give us experience of the divine. Throughout his children’s fantasy stories MacDonald is describing the human and divine imagination. In the shorter tales he shows how the imagination has different regions and depths, each able to shift into the other. With the longer stories we see the imagination in relation to other aspects of the self and to its position in the world. Here the imagination is portrayed as often embattled in relation to empiricism, egotism, and greed.

American Historical Review is the oldest scholarly journal of history in the United States and the largest in the world. Published by the American Historical Association, it covers all areas of historical research.