Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Introduction -- The discarded imagination: Metaphors by which a holy nation lives -- Foyer: before the promenade (prolegomena) -- 1. What are theologians for? why doctors of the church should prescibe Christian doctrine -- 2. True pictures: what every pastor should know about biblical truth and interpretation -- 3. Three ways of singing sola: scripture as light, compass and script (A sermon on Psalm 119:103-5, Luke 24:25-27 and Colossians 3:15-17) -- Gallery one: pictures of the church's worship -- 4. Worship at the well: from dogmatics to doxology (and back again) -- 5. Praising God in song: beauty and the arts -- 6. Moses' Magnificant: a song for the semester--and the ages (a sermon on Exodus 15:1-18) -- Gallery two: pictures of the church's witness -- 7. The drama of the Christ: the gospel as thing done and word made -- 8. The drama of discipleship: a vocation of spiritual formation -- 9. The strange new status symbol of the cross (a sermon on Philippians 2:5-11) -- Gallery three: pictures of the church's wisdom -- 10. Sapiential apologetics: the dramatic demonstration of gospel truth -- 11. Enhancement in the cathedral: power, knowledge and smart pills -- The wisdom of angels: brokenness and wholeness in the academy and church (a sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:18-25) -- Conclusion -- The Man with the X-Rho eyes (a sermon on 2 Kings 6: 4-23).

Many Christians are held captive by a picture of the imagination as a purveyor of false images, prone to idolatry. We live in a society fixated on images that have little or no significance. We are surrounded by models of the world that are not in touch with any truth outside of themselves. But we lack the resources to see and imagine things differently. Kevin Vanhoozer calls the church to a more biblical and premodern picture, one that sees every particular person, thing and event in the light of God's act of reconciling the world to himself in Christ. Through essays on the church's worship, witness and wisdom, Vanhoozer shows us how a poetic imagination can answer the questions of life's meaning by drawing our attention to what really matters: the God of the gospel. -- Amazon.