Theological Aesthetics: God in Imagination, Beauty, and Art

by Richard Viladesau

This book explores the role of aesthetic experience in our perception and understanding of the holy. Richard Viladesau's goal is to articulate a theology of revelation, examined in relation to three principal dimensions of the aesthetic 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 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.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Art, Academic

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 25, 1999

Reviews

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Viladesau gives a lot of good thoughts in here. Especially when it comes to Aesthetic Theology and how the way we think about God affects the way we view art or even the art that we create. Viladesau does a great job in comparing/contrasting Christian/Western thought with Dharmic/Eastern thought.

I appreciated his handling of the history of iconography in the church, and how he tries to balance the thought between the positive and negative feelings that the church has had towards art over the centuries. Unfortunately, he never really deals with what I think the difficult part of aesthetic theology is: art is good. Now, I agree that art is good, but it isn't only good and often times those who really lean into this only talk about high art. But not about the terrible slasher movie made for $1000 with terrible acting and writing, or pornography. The desperate need for theologians to engage with popular culture but also steer people towards good art instead of bad (and just assuming it.)

Also, this book is not very well written from an aesthetic standpoint (a common problem) and something Viladesau calls out himself near the beginning. This is something I agree with, and theologians need to know how to write stuff that doesn't bore me to tears and fail to communicate important things because you have veiled them behind German philosophical concepts and can't make simple erudite sentences.

In any case, this book is alright, but a little too much inside baseball for my tastes. If you're more philosophically minded you'd probably get more out of it than I did.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok