Found Theology ― History, Imagination and the Holy Spirit

Found Theology is a book about how theology deals with newly-encountered (of ‘found’) material in time, and about the role of imagination in these encounters. The book is unusual and ground-breaking exercise in the interdisciplinary discussion of theology and the arts.

Ben Quash brings together elements of doctrine, scripture, the fine arts and the experiences of everyday life. He looks closely at Christian artistic traditions via a number of case studies that represent a rich source of examples of the way that the new times properly stimulate new expressions of known and loved things. Quash engages closely with some serious and prominent American scholars, namely Peter Ochs, Daniel W. Hardy, C.S. Peirce and David H. Kelsey.

Ben Quash is the first occupant of the Chair in Christianity and the Arts at King's College London, UK. He has been there since 2007, and prior to that was Dean and Fellow of Peterhouse in the University of Cambridge, UK, where he was also Academic Convenor of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, developing research and public education programmes related to the three Abrahamic traditions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. He runs an MA in Christianityand the Arts in association with the National Gallery, London, has worked with many arts organisations including the Britten Sinfonia, the Royal Opera House, and the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, and broadcasts frequentlyon BBC radio. He is a Canon Theologian of both Coventry and Bradford Cathedrals, and was the author of Abiding, the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book 2013.