The Portal of Beauty: Towards a Theology of Aesthetics

by Bruno Forte, David Glenday (Translator), Paul McPartlan (Translator)

A famous Italian theologian's eloquent reflections on beauty and God.

"Beauty is an it happens when the Whole, the All, offers itself to us in the fragment, when the Infinite makes itself little." This is how Bruno Forte describes the long-held Christian tradition that traces beauty back to God and sees God as the source of all beauty. But, he questions, is this really possible? How can the limitless inhabit what is little? In  The Portal of Beauty  Forte examines the deep, though not always obvious, contribution of theological thought -- from the minds of such luminaries as Augustine, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Balthasar, and Evdokimov -- to the understanding and experience of beauty.

Genres: Theology

129 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2008

Reviews

[Jordan B Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through an overview of important Christian thinkers on beauty (Augustine, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Balthasar, Evdokimov), Forte argues that beauty is constituted by the revealing of the whole within fragments. This incarnational model provides a helpful bridge between philosophical and theological discourse surrounding aesthetics.