Religious Aesthetics: A Theological Study of Making and Meaning

Part 1 Introduction: the prospect of religious aesthetics; the aims and premises of the current study; the strategy in brief. Part 2 Can aesthetics be Christian?: aesthetics, theology and the example of ethics; rethinking aesthetics; the easthetic and the religious - theory at an impasse; religious aesthetica - or, farewell to the duck/rabbit; aesthetics in theology. Part 3 Art, religion and the aesthetic milieu: aesthetics, anti-aesthetics, neo-aesthetics; in search of aesthetica; exemplary aesthetica and deficient aesthetics; the aesthetic continuum; the aesthetic milieu in view of the religious. Part 4 Artistic makings and religious meanings: art and impurity; concepts and definitions of art; interlude - the "more" within art; the makings of art; artistic imagination and religious meaning. Part 5 Varieties of religious aesthetic experience: religion and its varieties; imagining Christianity aesthetically; Christian aesthetics amd divine transcendence; Christian aesthetics and human transformation. Part 6 Sin and bad taste: aesthetic criteria in the realm of religion; antinomy; elements of taste; taste in the realm of religion; against the antinomy; sinful taste. Part 7 Questioning the classics: norms and canons in religion and art; classics in question; artworks as religious classics; the plurality of classics and the conflict of norms; performing the tradition - the makings of religious pluralism. Part 8 Conclusion: aesthetics from the standpoint of theology - standpoints of aesthetic understanding; aesthetics from the present standpoint; aesthetics - philosophical, religious, theological.