A Grace of Sense - theological aesthetics

  De Musica is an early work of Augustine, consisting of six books - the last of them written after his baptism in 391. It is a treatise of numbers, movement, rhythm and measure more than that of music (in the sense we understand the word). Initially Augustine aimed to dedicate a book to all the liberal sciences. However, the only accomplished works came to be De Musica and De Dialectica. The vision behind these books was a prominently Neo-Platonist one: through the study of these sciences that belong to the physical world, one could arrive at the incorporeal reality of God ( per corporalia cupiens ad incorporalia quibusdam quasi passibus certis vel pervenire vel ducere ). De Musica was a highly influential textbook throughout the Middle Ages. All subsequent authors on musical theory – Cassiodore, Boethius as well as Isidor – relied upon Augustine in a way or another. At the outset Augustine defines music in as scientia bene modulandi . This idea is difficult to translate c...

In the ancient Greece, humor, playfulness, and jokes were considered as something proper to children and slaves but not appropriate for free men. Plato wanted to drive away the comedians from his Republic. The Christian Church inherited this view on humor. Accordingly, laughter was deemed as superfluous, if not sinful. Jesus is not told to have laughed, and in monastic rules (e.g. the Rule of St. Benedict) laughter is prohibited for monks and nuns.  It is worth noting that laughter in the Bible has usually the touch of scorn, as "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision" (Ps. 2,4). Even God himself seems occasionally lack the sense of humor when He asks: "Why did Sarah laugh?" (Gen. 18,13) Later, Thomas Aquinas had an interesting discussion on humor in Summa Theologiae II-II, quaestio 168 . He asks, whether the "lack of play" ( defectus ludi ) can be viewed as sin. Typically, Aquinas begins with an argument against play and laughter...

The Word of God is the basis for Christian theology. Only very modern, liberal theologies may claim that there is some other source of Christianity that would be more important, such as "human religious experience". All great traditions of Christian spirituality attest that the Word of God is the source of theology. However, "the Word of God" may have several different meanings. In the protestant world, the Word of God is equivalent for "the Holy Bible". This view is correct, yet inadequate. Everything in the Church is based (in one way or another) to the Bible. It is the major litarary source of Christianity, even if not the one and only. Fundamentalist theologians tend to ignore the significance of creeds and ecumenical symbols. There is no direct access to the Bible that could take no notice to the two millennia of Chriatian thinking. Nevertheless, there is no way getting rid of the Bible. For a Christian, the Bible is neither a historical document ...

Having accomplished the work of creation, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Gen 1,31) This is the ultimate statement of Christianity (and Judaism, and, probably, Islam) about the world in God's sight. It is the basic conviction of theological aesthetics and its biblical ground. The word "good" might as well be read as "beautiful." In the biblical narrative it became soon apparent, that this approach to the world is problematic. On the very next page of Genesis there came the Fall. In many theological traditions (mainly Western ones) the Fall caused large destruction to the primeval beauty of the creation. Nevertheless, the mainstream Christianity (whatever it might be) has never believed in the total depravity of the Creation. According to the Church Fathers, to say that the bodily existence of ours is an evil thing, is a heresy. The most important thing pertaining to the view of God to the world is, that God never gave se...