Matthew Hoffman

“Reason needs the imagination and at the same time must transcend it because what really matters is the search for truth.”
― Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen, Theological Aesthetics: A Reader

“Augustine affirms that not only the beauties of the world but also those sought by human art are ultimately derived from the divine beauty and its desirability. Nevertheless, he is constantly aware that they may be misused and become an obstacle instead of a means to God:
But 1, 0 my God and my Beauty, from hence I also sing a hymn to You, and make a sacrifice of praise to my Sanctifier; because those beauties which are conveyed through the soul into cunning hands, all descend from that beauty which is above our souls, for which my soul sighs day and night. But those who fashion and seek external beauties derive thence li.e., from the ultimate Beauty] their affirmation of these things, but not the correct way of using them. Yet there It is, although they do not perceive It, so that they might not wander too tar, but might preserve their strength only for You, and not waste it on pleasurable exhaustions.u”
― Richard Viladesau, Theological Aesthetics: God in Imagination, Beauty, and Art

“A major theme for Bonhoeffer was that every Christian must be "fully human" by bringing God into his whole life, not merely into some "spiritual" realm. To be an ethereal figure who merely talked about God, but somehow refused to get his hands dirty in the real world in which God had placed him, was bad theology. Through Christ, God had shown that he meant us to be in this world and to obey him with our actions in his word. So Bonhoeffer would get his hands dirty, not because he had grown impatient, but because God was speaking to him about further steps of obedience.”
― Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

“In one of the most celebrated passages of the Confessions, he addresses God as primal Beauty:
Late have I loved You, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved You! and behold, You were within me, and I was outside, and I sought you there, and threw myself, deformed, upon the beautiful things which You made. You were with nie, but I was not with you. Those things held me far from You; things which would not even exist unless they were in You. You called and cried out and broke open my deafness; You shone forth and glowed and chased away my blindness; You blew fragrantly on me, and I drew breath and I pant for You; I tasted You, and I hunger and thirst for You; You touched me, and I was inflamed with desire for your peace.”
― Richard Viladesau, Theological Aesthetics: God in Imagination, Beauty, and Art