A Poetics of Church

This innovative book aims to create a poetics of Church and a religious imaginary as alternatives to more institutional and conventional ways of thinking and of being Church. Structured as a spiritual and literary journey, the work moves from models of the institutional Catholic Church into more radical and ambiguous textual spaces, which the author creates by bringing together an unorthodox group of thinkers referred to as poet-companions: the 16th-century founder of the Society of Jesus, Ignatius of Loyola, the French thinkers Gaston Bachelard and Hlne Cixous, the French poet Yves Bonnefoy, and the English playwright Dennis Potter. Inspired especially by the reading and writing practices of Cixous, the author attempts to exemplify Cixous notion of criture fmininefeminine writingthat suggests new ways of seeing and relating. The projects uniting of Ignatian spirituality with postmodern thinking and its concern with creating new theological, literary and spiritual spaces for women both coincide and contrast with Pope Franciss pastoral and reformist tendencies, which have neglected to adequately address the marginalisation of women in the Church. As Francis has called for a theology of women, of which there are, of course, many to draw from, this volume will be a timely contribution with a unique interdisciplinary approach.