Poetry and Doctrine

Poetry is one of those things in human language that gives a glimpse into something fundamental about humanity, something not about functional, performance-oriented communication but about the business of creating worlds of recognition. It is, from this point of view, inescapably theological. But thinking about this should also illuminate the sense in which doctrinal statements are ‘poetical’ – not because they are imprecise and non-literal, but because they are constructive of a culture.