By All Means Touch the Work – towards a tactile textured theology

This paper will consider creative methodologies as a means for theological inquiry, identifying how a/r/tograhphy and creative research methods might be used to deepen researcher understanding and dissemination of work. Highlighting the approach as cognitively demanding, holistically integrated and accessible to a wide variety of people, the presenter will explore practical examples and broad theological traditions. This paper emphasizes the importance of multimodal methodologies as a way to highlight voices that are traditionally marginalized using modes that are academically neglected. Sharing performance poetry, textiles, and academic scenarios where room is given for creative expression will mean this paper is offered as a living exemplar of ways in which creativity and intellectual rigor are in harmony with one another and enrich theological inquiry as a discipline. Theological work is a work of heart, hands and head, and the paper seeks to make this explicit as a research practice.