Eminent theologians John Milbank, Graham Ward, and Edith Wyschogrod discuss aesthetics, placing radical orthodoxy in dialogue with postmodern theology.

Rarely do theologians take up the theme of God's beauty--even more rarely do they consider how God's beauty should shape the task of theology itself. But the psalmist says that the heart of the believer's desire is to behold the beauty of the Lord. In The Beauty of the Lord Jonathan King restores aesthetics as not merely a valid lens for theological reflection, but an essential one. Jesus, our incarnate Redeemer, displays the Triune God's beauty in his actions and person, from creation to final consummation. How can and should theology better reflect this unveiled beauty? The Beauty of the Lord is a renewal of a truly aesthetic theology and a properly theological aesthetics. --

Editors Mark Husbands, Roger Lundin and Daniel J. Treier present ten essays that explore a Christian approach to beauty and the arts. The visual arts, music and literature are considered as well as the theological meaning and place of the arts in a fallen world redeemed by Christ.

Over the centuries, theological studies have grappled with the comprehension of Truth and Goodness. However, theology, unlike philosophy, has neglected serious scrutiny of the study of Beauty or Aesthetics. Jo Ann Davidson's Toward a Theology of Beauty investigates this omission. Why should aesthetic dimensions be ignored in theology's quest for ultimate truth? Davidson convincingly states that these would contribute to the ongoing search for a more comprehensive perception of the divine. This book contends that theology is incomplete and impoverished without fundamental deliberations within aesthetic values. A survey of the literature up to the present currently reveals that theological studies, by and large, do not yet realize the extent to which it might be enriched by the biblical aesthetic. God's own nature, His Word in both Testaments including narratives, poetry, literary structures, and vocabulary are all embedded in aesthetic expressions. A systematic study of the biblical aesthetic is one that calls for attention and this book offers a solid and thought-provoking beginning.

Many contemporary theologians seek to retrieve the concept of beauty as a way for people to encounter God. This groundbreaking book argues that while Martin Luther's view of beauty has often been ignored or underappreciated, it has much to contribute to that quest. Mark Mattes, one of today's leading Lutheran theologians, analyzes Luther's theological aesthetics and discusses its implications for music, art, and the contemplative life. Mattes shows that for Luther, the cross is the lens through which the beauty of God is refracted into the world.

This newest Rockwell Lecture Series volume features three of the most prominent theologians on the scene today. Milbank and Ward are the leaders of a new theological movement called "Radical Orthodoxy," while Wyschogrod is one of our premier postmodernist theologians. Here Milbank argues that a defense of beauty involves a defense of reciprocity, for beauty involves a mediation between the visible and the invisible. In addition, he uses this understanding of beauty to explore the relationship between beauty and the soul, which he defends against the postmodern view of the fragmented self. Ward examines the relationship between beauty and God by exploring the theology of eighth-century theologian John Damascene. Wyschogrod contends that the relationship of aesthetic and theology moves between naivete and nihilism. She argues that theology can gain from its study of aesthetics if we understand artwork as a system of traces, each nested inside the other; the trace is the mark that the sacred has disrupted or passed through the beautiful. John Milbank is the Frances Myers Ball Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of Virginia. Graham Ward is Professor of Contextual Theology at the University of Manchester. Edith Wyschogrod is J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought Emerita at Rice University.

First Published in 2004. God and Goodness takes the experience of value as a starting point for natural theology. Mark Wynn argues that theism offers our best understanding of the goodness of the world, especially its beauty and openness to the development of richer and more complex material forms. We also see that the world's goodness calls for a moral response: commitment to the goodness of the world represents a natural extension of the trust to which we aspire in our dealings with human beings. Wynn argues that the goodness of the world provides a glimpse into what we should mean by 'God'. Here, he seeks to recover the mediaeval sense that the goodness of the world offers an image of the goodness of God, not simply in relation to the world, but in itself. This book will be an invaluable read for those interested in natural theology and philosophy of religion.