Amos Wilder’s Theopoetic, recently reprinted in Wipf & Stock’s Amos Wilder LIbrary, is a plea for a renewal of imagination, written with the taut elegance of a poet.
Writing in 1976, Wilder saw himself fighting on two fronts – against the utilitarian spirit of American Protestantism on the one hand, and against an anarchist aesthetic on the other. A self-described “traditionalist” who aimed above all to revive biblical tradition, he urged Christians to be open to currents in contemporary arts that might become vehicles for Christian witness.
The result is a measured, mature reflection on Christian imagination, no less relevant today than when it was written.