Imago Dei brings together a collection of poets who merge faith, literature, and art as a form of worship and inspiration.

An anthology of the best poems published in the journal Christianity and Literature over the past sixty years, Imago Dei brings together in one volume poetry which exemplifies the richness and variety of the art. These poems find beauty in the concrete and particular, but they also ask the big questions: Why do we exist? Who is God? Where do we find God? What does the Incarnation mean? When does God speak to us, and why is God silent?

These poets all have in common an awareness of human experience as part of a grand narrative, of the imago dei embedded in human nature, and of the sense of connection to something much larger than themselves. These are poems written from within a theological tradition, though they are not necessarily traditional in form or expression. They upset the usual in their originality; they are worded words, connected to our earthly life but pointed toward the Kingdom of God; they are redemptive words made flesh.

Included in the over one hundred poets represented here are Wendell Berry, Mark Jarmon, Jeanne Murray Walker, Dana Gioa, Martha Serpas, Luci Shaw, and Robert Siegel. All of the poets in this collection grapple with what Imago Dei means for them as readers, writers, artists, teachers, and students.

Jill Pelaez Baumgaerter is the author of four collections of poetry, a textbook/anthology, Poetry, and Flannery O'Connor: A Proper Scaring, in addition to over forty essays. She has been a Fulbright scholar and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the winner of the White Eagle Coffee Store Press's poetry chapbook contest, the Goodman Award, an Illinois Arts Council Award, and the Illinois Prize of the Rock River Poetry Contest. She is a past president of the Conference on Christianity and Literature and serves as poetry editor of The Christian Century. Currently she is Professor of English and Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies at Wheaton College.

ISBN: 9780891123217

Pages: 276

Dimensions (inches): 8 x 5.25

Weight (pounds): 0.7