What Brought Folks Here?

[L.B.C. Keefe-Perry]

As the webmaster of theopoetics.net, I track hits to the site and
notice that folks from all over are reading about the topic. It makes
me wonder...

1) What brings you to theopoetics?

2) Where did you encounter the term/idea?

[cybersue]

I have a master's degree in the dramatic interpretation of non-
dramatic literature (poetry and prose) and a masters in theological
studies, and I see theopoetics as a way of speaking about the
relationship I have always experienced between encounters with the
divine in theological writings and in creative literature. I also
consider the performance of literature to be the "word made flesh," or
the embodiment of the word: namely the poem or text being performed/
spoken/shared with others. Theopoetics, I think, has great potential
to reach younger generations of people seeking a novel, and deeper
connection with the divine.

[derr...@gmail.com]

I found the idea when i started my MA program at the Vancouver School
of Theology. As a student with ADHD the traditional scientific way of
working in theology did not work with me. With a background in
creative writing and film i needed ways that tapped into those places
in me. SO i stumbled on 'the poet, the warrior, the prophet' and have
not looked back.

[travis poling]

I think I encountered "theopoetics" for the first time in searching
online several years ago for connections between poetry and theology
as a religion and writing student in college. When I came to Bethany
Theological Seminary, I heard more about it, since a few of my friends
and a professor had written or were writing on theopoetics. We had
some conversations about it, but I still didn't really understand what
it was. I finally asked them and they said, "You're already doing it."
That didn't help me understand the term any better, but it made me go
look into it more deeply, and now I'm in love with it. I see
theopoetics as what the future of theology, and the future of the
church, must become if there is to be any hope of not merely surviving
but living the resurrection in this world.