The Limits of Formalism and the Theology of Hope

Abstract

In my Introduction I suggested that the formal study of Religion and Literature in the United States in the 1950s arose out of, and also as a reaction against that type of Formalism which became known as the New Criticism. For much of the later chapters of this book the tenets of that kind of literary criticism have been near the surface of my discussions. Finally, in Chapter 6, Paul Ricoeur was referred to as a critic, theologian and philosopher who recognizes clearly the value of the whole structuralist movement in literary theory, yet also perceives its limitations and shortcomings in the exploration of the language of theology and belief. It is time now to pursue in more detail the nature of these limitations and my sense of a need for a ‘criticism of criticism’ which is, I believe, essentially a theological activity. Once again, Paul Ricoeur, and also a theologian to whom he is indebted, Jürgen Moltmann, will be very much at the centre of my argument. My final two chapters will move on into the more radical and questionable, some may want to say nihilistic, area of deconstructive theory as another possible way of ultimately revisiting the mysterious truths of faith and theology.