The Fourth Wall: Toward a Theology of the Ideal

By: Van Hook, Larry M.

If you understand the nature of a story, you know nature itself, and you can find God in it. Dr. Larry M. Van Hook, in his book The Fourth Wall: Toward a Theology of the Ideal, invites the reader to follow the protagonist's extraordinary mission into eternity as he documents his encounters with celestial beings, angels, demons, and all sorts of earthly cryptids. As his new story unfolds, the character delves deep into the philosophical and theological underpinnings of reality, ethics, truth, and science. He discovers that all existence is a divine aesthetic, a work of art, and a grand narrative. Everything is made of story, essentially created and sustained by God's imagination.

This "theistic idealism" is more fully explained theologically in part 2, where Dr. Larry M. Van Hook examines idealism's implication for goodness, free will, and societal attempts to subvert God's story with vain imagination. You are invited to journey along, finding rabbit holes purposefully hidden within the story, and to decide if the universe is indeed grounded in the mind of God. It is hoped that the reader will realize that knowing the Artist is to understand his art and to know the art is to see the Artist's heart.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1637847416
• ISBN13: 9781637847411
• Release Date: July 2024
• Publisher: Hawes & Jenkins
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Find the stories within the story! Makes the book much more intriguing!

Note that the author encourages the reader to have the Internet search engine near when reading. One major theme in the book is that we are "stories within stories." So, in Part I, the novel, there are many Easter eggs that lead to other stories. The fun part of the book is finding these hidden gems.