Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of the Imagination: (143 American University Studies, Series 7: Theology & Religion)

Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of the Imagination argues Ricoeur's development of the philosophy of the creative imagination is vital to Ricoeur's articulation of a critical hermeneutics. Herein lies Ricoeur's hermeneutical contribution to the philosophy of religion and the problem of interpreting primary religious texts that utilize plurivocal forms of language. Evans clarifies that it is through Ricoeur's studies of metaphor and narrative that he assesses and explicates the subversive power of the creative imagination in terms of the philosophy of language. Dr. Evans systematizes this theme of the philosophy of the imagination from Fallible Man, the early work of Ricoeur to the more recent publication of Time and Narrative.

About the Author :
The Author: Jeanne Evans, an assistant professor of Religion and Philosophy at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, received her Ph.D. in theology from the University of St. Michael's College, Toronto in 1989. She has also taught for the philosophy department at the University of Maine, Orono, Maine.

Review :
oEvans' study! is both faithful to the author and quite original (fulfilling itself) the task of an hermeneutics of the imagination applied to reading. (Paul Ricoeur, University of Paris) 'Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics of the Imagination' provides a highly readable and illuminative entry into the role and functioning of the creative imagination in Paul Ricoeur's philosophy of religion. Adapted from Kant's 'First' and 'Third Critique', the creative imagination is shown to be a mediating power at the level of cognition, praxis and feeling between the sensible and the intelligible. Evans' book traces the origins and the development of this creative imagination in the work of Paul Ricoeur. Since its content is released only indirectly, she argues that for Ricoeur the creative imagination is an event of language in which the vibrancy and the ultimate concern of human existence is projectively 'imitated'. In its productions of the various forms of human discourse the imagination displays the opaque depths of human acting and living. Evans examines particularly how this imagination reveals the possibilities open to the human in the rich symbolic and metaphorical language of the sacred texts which give form to religious traditions. This book will be a very helpful guide for those who seek to understand Ricoeur's contribution to a philosophy of religion. (John van den Hengel, Saint Paul University)