Theological Aesthetics

Sublime Tekhelet

by Mois Navon

"Moral Agents in the Built Environment: Performing the Ethical Function of Architecture through Interpretation

by Elise Edwards

Presented at the 2012 Society of Christian Ethics annual meeting in Washington, DC.

The task of architecture is usually understood as an aesthetic or utilitarian endeavor; my study of the ethical... more The task of architecture is usually understood as an aesthetic or utilitarian endeavor; my study of the ethical approach provides an expanded perspective.  Drawing from Karsten Harries’ The Ethical Function of Architecture, I argue that architecture presents interpretations of an ethos for a specific time and place.  Architecture’s ethical task can be performed by moral agents who interpret the built environment according to their community’s ethos and Christian conceptions of justice and human flourishing. Interpreters should assess whether architectural projects support justice and liberation goals as these interpreters respond to contextual and normative questions about their communities and specific buildings.  In the presentation of this paper, I use images from the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to demonstrate how an interpreter would critique an architectural work in this way, determining if their built environment interprets an appropriate community ethos and serves the common good.

Rav's Beautiful Ratio: An Excursion into Aesthetics

by Mois Navon

Review: Theology, Music and Time by Jeremy Begbie

by Steve Wright

Review for Case Magazine 23 (2010).

Action, image, and practice the revival of aesthetics in the theologies of Nicholas Wolterstorff and Frank Burch Brown

by Daniel McClain

Aquinas, Dante, and the Poetics of the Middle Ages

by Brendan Sammon

Presented at the Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference at Villanova University, 2008.

This paper highlights some of the primary elements of the poetics of the middle ages by focusing on two of its most... more This paper highlights some of the primary elements of the poetics of the middle ages by focusing on two of its most well known figures, Thomas Aquinas and Dante Alighieri. The term ‘poetics’ is not easily associate with the Middle Ages, a period thought by most to have been a vast, lifeless, desert in which the Western world wandered until it was finally brought into the “promise land” of Enlightenment. One of the greatest achievements of the middle ages was scholasticism, which was marked by concerns for order, intelligibility, and clarity. Textually these concerns began to manifest themselves in the work of Anselm of Canterbury, Anselm of Laon, Peter Abelard, Peter Lombard and many others. But nowhere did scholasticism’s order, intelligibility and clarity appear more refined than in the immense corpus of Thomas Aquinas, meriting him the title of “Prince of the Scholastics.” Consequently, scholasticism was and remains characterized as a sensibility more associated with systems, structure and scientific precision than with poetics. This paper will challenge this view and instead argue that there was a rich poetic sensibility running throughout the middle ages. It is well known that Dante’s most prominent influence was the scholastic sensibility in which he was reared, and, as some Dante scholars have argued (e.g., Wicksteed) the influence of Thomas Aquinas was particularly present. Using Aquinas as representative, this paper will investigate the poetics of the middle ages that culminated in the work of Dante Alighieri by addressing the question: how could an age that was concerned only with system, structure and scientific precision give birth to the brilliance of Dante?

Through the Splendor of Creation: Dionysius the Areopagite and the Embodiment of Divine Pedagogy

by Brendan Sammon

Presented at the Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance conference at Villanova University, 2011.

Within the work of certain scholars who have written on Dionysius the Areopagite (e.g., Dodds, Arthur, et al.) there... more Within the work of certain scholars who have written on Dionysius the Areopagite (e.g., Dodds, Arthur, et al.) there is the view, as widespread as it is unexamined, that his thought, being little more than a parody of Neoplatonic idealism, promotes a disembodied theology and philosophy. Within the realm of art and beauty, arguably the center point of the Dionysian project, historians of aesthetics (Croce, Bosanquet, Gilbert, Kuhn, et al.) have encouraged such a disembodied portrait of the Areopagite.

This judgment in part derives from wrongly viewing the Areopagite from the perspective of Modern aesthetics, disintegrating his thoughts on art and beauty for the sake of a science (viz. aesthetics) that did not exist in late antiquity. Within such a disintegration, art and beauty are wrenched from their place in the overall Dionysian project and one begins from an already disembodied point of view.

One primary controversy that has emerged from all this concerns the way that ‘art’ functions with respect to divine pedagogy in the Areopagite’s thought. The most recent and most widely read (not to mention severely criticized) translation of the Corpus Dionysiacum, done by Rorem and Luibheid for the Classics of Western Literature series, interprets a significant passage from the Celestial Heirarchy in such a way as to completely alter the Dionysian view of the way that art functions in the service of divine pedagogy. Their interpretation follows the thought of the well-known 20th c. French Dionysian scholar, Rene Roques, who in a series of essays argued for his own position against the translation done by Eriugena on the grounds that Eriugena interpreted Dionysius through the lens of Eriugena’s own aesthetics and thus distorted the Dionysian view.

In this presentation, we want to challenge this interpretation and subsequent translation from three perspectives: 1) historical; 2) philosophical and 3) intra-textual. We will argue that not only is this translation deeply flawed, but that a more accurate translation of this passage will throw light on a doctrine of divine pedagogy that recognizes the ‘splendor of these created things’ as its medium of communication. More broadly, it will help to reorient Dionysian scholarship away from viewing him as a merely disembodied thinker in an effort to reintegrate his theories of art and beauty within his overall project that includes an

A "Antecipação Ansiosa do Demônico" em Edvard Munch: uma interpretação a partir da teologia da arte de Paul Tillich

by Guilherme de Carvalho

CARVALHO, G. V. R. . A "Antecipação Ansiosa do Demônico" em Edvard Munch: uma interpretação a partir da teologia da arte de Paul Tillich. Correlatio (São Bernardo do Campo), São Bernardo do Campo/SP, v. 8, n. 8, 2005. ISSN/ISBN: 1677-2644.

Neste artigo o autor examina como o demônico se expressa na arte segundo o pensamento de Paul Tillich por meio do... more Neste artigo o autor examina como o demônico se expressa na arte segundo o pensamento de Paul Tillich por meio do exame da obra do pintor norueguês, Edvard Munch, cujas telas retratariam o que se poderia chamar de "ansiedade pura". O ensaio é dividido em três parte: o demônico na arte, o conceito de ansiedade e a antecipação do demônico em Munch. O autor conclui que a arte tem poder reconciliador impulsionado pelo Espírito de Deus. Este artigo contém diversas ilustrações do conhecido pintor expressionista, além da reprodução da Guernica de Picasso.

Con l’alloro sotto il saio. Ipotesi su Fra Pacifico, Re dei Versi, e il Cantico di Frate Sole

by Cesare Catà

in “Picenum Seraphicum. Rivista di studi storici e francescani”, n. XXV (2006-2008), pp. 355-395

Perspicere Deum: Nicholas of Cusa and European Art of the Fifteenth Century

by Cesare Catà

The Creator Sings: A Wesleyan Rethinking of Transcendence with Robert Jenson

by Steve Wright

published in The Heythrop Journal

Beauty, Power and Attraction: Aesthetics and the Hebrew Bible

by David Penchansky

An analysis of concepts of beauty in the Hebrew Bible with special attention to the Song of Songs, David, Joseph,... more An analysis of concepts of beauty in the Hebrew Bible with special attention to the Song of Songs, David, Joseph, Rachel, Leah and the Suffering Servant.