Theological aesthetics : God in imagination, beauty, and art / Richard Viladesau.
1999
BR115.A8 V552 1999
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Details
Title
Theological aesthetics : God in imagination, beauty, and art / Richard Viladesau.
Author
ISBN
019512622X (hardcover : alk. paper)
9780195126228 (hardcover : alk. paper)
019512622X
9780195126228
9780195126228 (hardcover : alk. paper)
019512622X
9780195126228
Imprint
New York : Oxford University Press, 1999.
New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999.
New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1999.
Published
New York : Oxford University Press, 1999.
Language
English
Description
xi, 294 p. : ill ; 24 cm.
xi, 294 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
xi, 294 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Call Number
BR115.A8 V552 1999
Alternate Call Number
08.41
11.02
11.02
Summary
In this book, Richard Viladesau construes Christian theology as a "theological aesthetics." He examines Christian revelation and its rational presuppositions in relationship to three interconnected meanings of the "aesthetic" in modern thought: human cognition as feeling and imagination; the realm of the beautiful; and the arts. In each area, examples from the arts are correlated with classical and contemporary theological themes.
This book explores the role of aesthetic experience in our perception and understanding of the holy. Richard Viladesaus goal is to articulate a theology of revelation, examined in relation to three principal dimensions of the aesthetic realm: feeling and imagination; beauty (or taste); and the arts. After briefly considering ways in which theology itself can be imaginative or beautiful, Viladesau concentrates on the theological significance of aesthetic data provided by each of the three major spheres of aesthetic perception and response. Throughout the work, the underlying question is how each of these spheres serves as a source (however ambiguous) of revelation. Although he frames much of his argument in terms of Catholic theology--from the Church Fathers to Karl Rahner, Hans urs von Balthasar, Bernard Lonergan, and David Tracy--Viladesau also makes extensive use of ideas from the Protestant theologian of the arts Gerardus van der Leeuw, and draws insights from such diverse thinkers as Hans Goerg Gadamer, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Iris Murdoch. His analysis is enlivened by the artistic examples he selects: the music of Mozart as contemplated by Karl Barth, Schoenbergs opera Moses und Aron , the sculptures of Chartres Cathedral, poems by Rilke and Michelangelo, and many others. What emerges from this study is what Viladeseau terms a transcendental theology of aesthetics. In Thomistic terms, he finds that beauty is not only a perfection but a transcendental. That is, any instance of beauty, rightly perceived and rightly understood, can be seen to imply divinely beautiful things as well. In other words, Viladesau argues, God is the absolute and necessary condition for the possibility of beauty.
This book explores the role of aesthetic experience in our perception and understanding of the holy. Richard Viladesaus goal is to articulate a theology of revelation, examined in relation to three principal dimensions of the aesthetic realm: feeling and imagination; beauty (or taste); and the arts. After briefly considering ways in which theology itself can be imaginative or beautiful, Viladesau concentrates on the theological significance of aesthetic data provided by each of the three major spheres of aesthetic perception and response. Throughout the work, the underlying question is how each of these spheres serves as a source (however ambiguous) of revelation. Although he frames much of his argument in terms of Catholic theology--from the Church Fathers to Karl Rahner, Hans urs von Balthasar, Bernard Lonergan, and David Tracy--Viladesau also makes extensive use of ideas from the Protestant theologian of the arts Gerardus van der Leeuw, and draws insights from such diverse thinkers as Hans Goerg Gadamer, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Iris Murdoch. His analysis is enlivened by the artistic examples he selects: the music of Mozart as contemplated by Karl Barth, Schoenbergs opera Moses und Aron , the sculptures of Chartres Cathedral, poems by Rilke and Michelangelo, and many others. What emerges from this study is what Viladeseau terms a transcendental theology of aesthetics. In Thomistic terms, he finds that beauty is not only a perfection but a transcendental. That is, any instance of beauty, rightly perceived and rightly understood, can be seen to imply divinely beautiful things as well. In other words, Viladesau argues, God is the absolute and necessary condition for the possibility of beauty.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-286) and index.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-286) and index.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-286) and index.
Formatted Contents Note
Theology and aesthetics
God in thought and in imagination : representing the unimaginable
Divine revelation and human perception
God and the beautiful : beauty as a way to God
Art and the sacred
The beautiful and the good
Appendix : original texts of poetry quoted in translation.
Theology and aesthetics
God in thought and in imagination: representing the unimaginable
Divine revelation and human perception
God and the beautiful: beauty as a way to God
Art and the sacred
The beautiful and the good
Appendix: original texts of poetry quoted in translation.
God in thought and in imagination : representing the unimaginable
Divine revelation and human perception
God and the beautiful : beauty as a way to God
Art and the sacred
The beautiful and the good
Appendix : original texts of poetry quoted in translation.
Theology and aesthetics
God in thought and in imagination: representing the unimaginable
Divine revelation and human perception
God and the beautiful: beauty as a way to God
Art and the sacred
The beautiful and the good
Appendix: original texts of poetry quoted in translation.
Audience
1510 Lexile
Location
BR115.A8 V552 1999
Linked Resources
Record Appears in
Course Lists
SYS940 Art and Aesthetics by Biermann (Fall 2025)