Judging Beauty in Creation
The two domains of God’s revelation are general revelation and special revelation. God has revealed Himself to all men generally through the created order, and… Read More »Judging Beauty in Creation
Articles on Aesthetics
Beauty’s Description
Beauty defined may be abstract and remote; beauty described should be concrete. What does beauty look like? For that matter, since beauty is not only… Read More »Beauty’s Description
Beauty’s Definition: What About the Cross?
If beauty is ultimately God’s self-knowledge and communicative self-delight, we can explain easily enough why other theories of beauty have defined beauty as harmony and… Read More »Beauty’s Definition: What About the Cross?
Beauty’s Definition: Addenda
Jonathan Edwards combined insights from each of the theories of beauty, while being primarily theological. His theory was different from his Christian forbearers, though. Instead… Read More »Beauty’s Definition: Addenda
Beauty Defined (With Some Help From Edwards)
How do we decide between these competing definitions of beauty? As Christians, we would firstly say that we cannot be satisfied with a definition of… Read More »Beauty Defined (With Some Help From Edwards)
Beauty’s Definition
Defining beauty is no easy task. A definition of beauty or the beautiful has eluded the grasp of those who wish a definition with mathematical… Read More »Beauty’s Definition
Beauty’s Difficulties: Accounting for Taste
How can beauty be a real property if the question of “taste” enters in? If so many people find so many different things beautiful, then… Read More »Beauty’s Difficulties: Accounting for Taste
Beauty’s Difficulties: The Problem of Taste
After more than a century of grappling with Descartes’ division of knowledge into “subjective” and “objective”, eighteenth-century thinkers developed a way to rescue the concept… Read More »Beauty’s Difficulties: The Problem of Taste
Beauty’s Difficulties: A Case of Mistaken Identity
The topic of beauty suffers not only because its definition is disputed, but because beauty is often a victim of misidentification. These wrong associations lead… Read More »Beauty’s Difficulties: A Case of Mistaken Identity
The Unexamined Life
“The unexamined life is not worth living”, said Socrates. Socrates was teaching the need to live a life where all things are parsed for their… Read More »The Unexamined Life
Aesthetic Correspondence
For a couple weeks I have been developing the idea that in order to disciple people through corporate worship, our corporate worship must be shaped… Read More »Aesthetic Correspondence
Beauty’s Difficulties: A Christian Response to the Subject-Object Dilemma
For a while, it seemed chic to be able to say the word postmodern in a sermon. The belief-system behind the word is rather drab.… Read More »Beauty’s Difficulties: A Christian Response to the Subject-Object Dilemma
Beauty’s Difficulties: Subjective and Objective
Perhaps the most frequent objection levelled at those wishing to see beauty restored to a central place in Christian thinking is that beauty represents “subjective”… Read More »Beauty’s Difficulties: Subjective and Objective
Beauty’s Difficulties: Philosophy versus Biblical Authority
The discussion of beauty among Christians is often stymied before it starts. Some of this is due to a long-standing suspicion towards philosophy felt by… Read More »Beauty’s Difficulties: Philosophy versus Biblical Authority
Beauty and Motivation
As surprising as it might sound, beauty lies at the heart of motive. Why we do what we do is a question of desire, and… Read More »Beauty and Motivation
Beauty, Ethics and Worship
Sometimes throwaway lines leave a deep impression. One of those were words written on a blog I avidly followed about fifteen years ago. The writer… Read More »Beauty, Ethics and Worship
Taste and Preference: A Last Word
Why are there such different “tastes” among people? Is the debate over music in worship simply a “preference issue”? Are matters of music, dress, recreation… Read More »Taste and Preference: A Last Word
Taste Formed and Deformed by Culture
Taste is never shaped in isolation. We learn to love what we love from our family, our church, our school, and our society. In other… Read More »Taste Formed and Deformed by Culture
Taste Spoiled By Sweetness
A discussion of taste is one of the most difficult (and unrewarding) ones to have, for most people are unreflective about their likes. “I know… Read More »Taste Spoiled By Sweetness
Good Taste and Christian Taste
Even atheists used to believe in good taste. The infamous David Hume wrote in his Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals “In many orders of… Read More »Good Taste and Christian Taste