Abstract
Religious experience, as a transforming experience of inner meaning, is initially expressed in and through re-presentations of the imagination (as to imagine, to image). Theo-poetics or images of “God” lie behind and are prior to theology. Images emerge in and from transforming experiences, surfacing out of the depths of the human imagination but always within and related to the given language and perceptual frames of those experiencing. Typically a variety of referential images cluster around the initial image(s) of the liberating experience. For example in the early Christian period, the primary image of “the Christ” was expressed in and through such referential images as Shepherd, Messiah, redeemer God, Son of Man, Rock, Door, Bridegroom, and so on. Because images are not consciously or rationally created, imaging is a form of interpretation organically related to the transforming experience by way of the imagination. Imaging emerges from and resonates with the intuitive and pre-cognitive dimensions of human experience. In more organized form, the imaged experience assumes the shape of myth, story, and ritual. Relating to and identifying with this form of interpretation is grounded in our abilities to imagine imaging images. The primary threat to this interpretive style is the tendency to substitute theology for theopoetics, or an explanation for the imaged experience of transformation.