Theology, Fantasy, and the Imagination analyzes theological, religious, and philosophical themes in classical Christian fantasy, contemporary “post-Christian” fantasy, and fantasy at play in table top games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: the Gathering.

1. Introduction: Theology, Fantasy, and the ImaginationAndrew D. Thrasher and Austin M. FreemanPart I: Invocations2. The Old MagicNicholas AdamsPart II: Classical Christian Fantasy: Renewing Christian Imagination3. Sins of the Imagination Austin M. Freeman4. C.S. Lewis, Apologetics, and the Imagination: Breaking the Spell of Secularism Alison Milbank5. Between Tolkien and the Philosophers: Greek and Scholastic Theories of PhantasiaGiovanni Carmine CostabilePart III: Post-Christian Fantasy: Opening the Door Beyond6. Why Theology Should Always Be Fantasy: Imagination, Fantasy, and Science-Fictional Messianism in the Writings of Rabbi Shagar Levi Morrow7. Theology in Shadow: Sin and Redemption in Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of EarthseaOliver D. Crisp8. Cosmology as Agnostic Self-Actualization in Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldU-Wen Low9. Fantastic Inter-Religious Resourcement in Robert Jordan and David Eddings Andrew D. Thrasher10. The Hero as God: An Exploration of Mormon Soteriology in the Fantasy Novels of Orson Scott Card and Brandon Sanderson Josh HerringPart IV: Fantasy at Play: Theologizing with Fantastic Games11. Imaginative Hermeneutical Theology: Paul Ricoeur and Dungeons & Dragons Scott Donahue-Martens12. Magic: The Gathering and Meaning: The Theological Outlook of the World’s Most Complex Game Jacob Torbeck