Towards an Ecotheological Imagination: A Study in the Prose and Poetry of S.T. Coleridge, C.S. Lewis, and Wendell Berry

Abstract

Focusing on the conceptions of imagination in both the analytic prose and poetry of S.T. Coleridge, C.S. Lewis, and Wendell Berry, the argument of my thesis is for two related elements. First, I argue that Lewis and Berry stand within a Coleridgean heritage regarding their conceptions of imagination and, second, that both embody the imagination’s ecotheological quality possible in the heritage itself, though there is a progression in ecotheological explicitness from Lewis to Berry. In my Preface, I specify my methodology, set out definitions, and justify and outline the thesis itself. In an effort to ground my work and shed light on the Coleridgean heritage, in Chapter One, I argue from Coleridge’s analytic prose that there are ecotheological possibilities within the theory of the imagination embodied therein. Furthermore, I demonstrate that in Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner these possibilities reach a full, ecotheological expression in ecological, ethical action, establishing the heritage in which Lewis and Berry stand. In Chapters Two and Three, I explore how Lewis stands within a Coleridgean heritage regarding his conception of imagination and embodies the imagination’s ecotheological quality, the foundations of which can be discerned through an expositional analysis of his analytic prose but the fullness of which can be uncovered with more clarity through an exploration of his poetry. In Chapters Four and Five, I explore how Berry stands within a Coleridgean heritage regarding his conception of imagination and embodies the imagination’s ecotheological quality in both his analytic prose—and more explicitly than Lewis does—and his poetry. Finally, in my Conclusion, and in addition to summarizing the terrain explored, I briefly offer a theologically constructive critique of the Coleridgean heritage, as well as note the larger implications of my project both for Christian, theological conceptions of imagination and the arts and Christian endeavours in ecotheology.