Beauty and Revelation in the Thought of Saint Augustine

Abstract

This book places Saint Augustine's theology in a new context by considering what he has to say about beauty. It demonstrates how a theological understanding of beauty revealed in the created, temporal realm enabled Augustine to form a positive appreciation of this realm and the saving power of beauty within it. It therefore reintroduces aesthetics alongside philosophy and ethics in Augustine's treatment of God. The book shifts emphasis away from Augustine's early and most theoretical treatises to his mature reflections as a bishop and pastor on how God communicates with fallen man. Using his theory of language as a paradigm, it shows how divine beauty, revealed in creation and history, serves to inspire fallen man's faith, hope, and most especially his love – thereby reforming him and restoring the form or beauty he had lost.

Imagining Divine Beauty: Augustine on Phantasma, Lamentation and Expectation

“…However, she adds that Augustine in his mature period as a theologian firmly denies the possibility of the soul's ascent through the liberal arts. 42 Otten explicates Augustine's via negativa in a similar manner. She observes that Augustine has upheld a position far grimmer than those of Plato and Plotinus concerning the soul's condition for divine illumination, i.e., a fundamental condition for visio Dei.…”

The Transformation Brought by Soft Computing

“…Where to find the number, size and order, where is found the most perfect form." (Harrson 1992) The steps from angel to earth, from spirit to matter, are descended in a "form of harmony". This "harmonious form" is a kind of "integral" order, which also contains the provisions of "precise" proportional relations.…”

Redeeming Beauty? Christa and the Displacement of Women’s Bodies in Theological Aesthetic Discourses

“…This revelation of love elicits in the believer a confession of sin as well as praise (doxology). As such, Christ’s beauty cannot be perceived apart from the believer’s own moral and spiritual purification (see Harrison, 1992: 232). Namely, Augustine contends that by imitating Christ in faith and love, we, too, become beautiful and participate in the beauty of God.…”