Religious Imagination and Language in Emerson and Nietzsche (Studies in Literature and Religion)

This book considers Emerson and Nietzsche primarily as post-theological religious thinkers and treats their understanding of the nature of religion and language. It suggests that both thinkers articulated a deeply felt concern about the inadequacy of traditional concepts of God, religion and religious experience. As part of the process of reassessing received 'truth' they transformed theology into anthropology and privileged immanence over transcendence. As a result of this paradigm shift, religion becomes a manifestation of the creative will engaged in the process of meaning-making. The critique of Christianity and rejection of transcendence which allowed these thinkers to recover the divine within the individual is informed by their emphasis on the humanity of Jesus. Emerson described Jesus as 'the Sayer'; Nietzsche described him as 'the Evangel'. The idea of Jesus as man is also the key to their interpretation of language. The Word inscribed in the world becomes the condition for the possibility of meaning.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.