Upholding Mystery: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Poetry

Christian Century, June 4, 1997 by Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner

Edited by David Impastato. Oxford University Press. 369 pp., $25.00.

Any anthropology of Christian poetry, especially contemporary Christian poetry, must be approached warily. Under that label some editors collect work that professes Christian sentiment but does not, even by minimal critical standards, qualify as poetry. Others collect high-caliber poetry that can be called "Christian" only by the most inclusive and broad definition of the term--the poetry selected does not reveal any real interest in the Word.

David Impastato has somehow found the balance. He has gathered the work of 15 contemporary poets, all consummate artists and all rooted in a sacramentalism tied to the theology of the cross.

It is good to hear the uncommon words of these poets. One is reminded of Martin Heidegger's contention that at a time when God is perceived as distant and dissociated from the world, when modern men and women are so separated from God that they do not even recognize that separation, the poet, in the world's night, utters the holy.

Impastato steps beyond this romantic idea, however. In his introduction he explodes the myth that postmodernism is the Christian artist's ultimate enemy. Impastato recognizes that there are basic differences between the postmodern sensibility and Christian faith (in particular the postmodernist's "presumption of absence" versus "Christianity's witness of metaphysical presence"). But he also points out certain similarities--that, for example, the struggling authorities of text, author and reader are central concerns for both postmodernists and those Christians interested in the words of scripture and the definition of the incarnation as the Logos, the Word uttered by God. Another important link between the two is their opposition to the Enlightenment "deification of reason," which would obliterate mystery. Thus the book's title.

While Impastato refuses to consider postmodern tenets to be irreconcilable with Christian faith and implies that an assertion of incompatibility actually elevates words to a position above the Logos, he nevertheless separates himself from other collectors of contemporary poetry by including none of the postmodernist "language poets." The language poets contend that meaning is in the language itself. If meaning exists, it is a construct a reader imposes on a text. For these poets, the process of interpreting, not the communication of a specific truth or experience, is the point. Like Pilate they ask, "What is truth?"

The poets in this volume, by contrast, are very much interested in communicating absolute truth, even though they also seem sensitive to the frustrating reality that rational, propositional language takes one only so far. The Christian's aesthetic rests on the edge of a paradox, and paradox always pushes one beyond words to a larger truth the words cannot contain--to the Word.

The poems in this volume are arranged not by author but by theme, beginning with "The Cross" and ending with "The Holy," with topics such as "Death," "Fools," "God's Body," "The Dark," "Grace" and "Sacrament" in between. The editor provides an introduction to each section and helpful guidance to the poems. His commentary never intrudes, but informs subtly and helpfully. The poets are living, contemporary voices, some of them familiar: Daniel Berrigan, Wendell Berry, Louise Erdrich, Kathleen Norris, Les Murray, Richard Wilbur, Annie Dillard, Geoffrey Hill, Denise Levertov. Others are new: David Craig, Andrew Hudgins, David Brendan Hopes, Maura Eichner, David Citano, Scott Cairns.

Rarely will readers come across such a strong selection of poets and poems that push readers into the awareness of the grim and terrible beauty of the cross, the grounding of sacrament, the unutterable yet brooding presence of God in all that exists. This is, of course, what poetry always should do but rarely does, even in Christian publications and collections.

Reviewed by Jill Pelaez Baumgaertner, professor of English at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.