This book explores the prophetic characteristics of literature, particularly poetry, that seek to reimagine the world in which it is written. Using theological and philosophical insights it charts the relentless impulse of literature to propose alternative visions, practicable or utopian, and point toward possibilities of renewal and change.

Contributors; Introduction by the Editors; I: Approaching the Prophetic: Orientations, Ancient and Modern; 1 At the Creative Source of the Arts: Poetry as Prophecy in a Negative Theological Key-William Franke; 2 Isaiah: Reading Writing, Re-Voicing Silent Israel-Katherine Brown; 3 'Diversely and in Many Ways God poke by the Prophets': New Testament Perspectives and William Blake on the Prophetic Word- Christopher Rowland; 4 Poetry, Prophecy and the Angelic Voice: Reflections on the Divine Word- Mona Siddiqui; 5 Prophecy and the Poetic Word- David Lonsdale; II: Prophecy in the Critical Lens of Philosophy; 6 Explanation, Silence, and Then Poetry: Wittgenstein's Poetic Philosophy as a Prophetic Vision of Life- Paul Grosch; 7 The Philosopher Empedocles as Prophet and His Reception by Freud-Alessandro Schiesaro; 8 Poetry, Prophecy and Presence: Reading the Signs of the Times with Jacques Ellul-Jacob Rollison; 9 Beyond the 'Immanent Frame': Charles Taylor as Interpreter of the Prophetic in Poetry-Lukasz Tischner; III. The Prophetic in the Witness of Literature; 10 John Clare's Romantic 'I': A Prophetic Poetics of Testimony-Elizabeth Dodd; 11 Fearful Symmetry, Seventy Years On: Northrop Frye on William Blake-Michael Kirwan, SJ; 12 Czeslaw Milosz and R. S. Thomas as Prophetic Voices of Our Time-Pryemzslaw Michalski; 13 When does a Pilgrim become a Prophet? R. S. Thomas, 'This to do', and the Shaping of a Prophet-Carys Walsh; 14 T. S. Eliot and Tadeusz Rózewicz: The Prophetic Strain-Jean Ward;15 The Forerunners: St. John the Baptist and Lazarus in the Poetry of T.S. Eliot-Malgorzata Grzegorzewska; IV. Looking Forward: Framing the Question of the Prophetic in Late-Modernity; 16 The Power of Spiritual Poetry in a Secular World-Hilary Davies; 17 'Nature Is Never Spent'?: The Prophetic Voice in Contemporary Canadian Ecological Poetry-Deborah Bowen; 18 Prophecy as Hope: Interpreting the Silence of Holy Saturday-Tina Beattie