[DOC] Christmas Extravaganza; Book 1: 9 Early Intermediate Arrangements in a Variety of Styles (Piano Extravaganza) by Robert D. Vandall at Arts-Photography

Description

This book explores the role of aesthetic experience in our perception and understanding of the holy. Richard Viladesaus goal is to articulate a theology of revelation; examined in relation to three principal dimensions of the aesthetic realm: feeling and imagination; beauty (or taste); and the arts. After briefly considering ways in which theology itself can be imaginative or beautiful; Viladesau concentrates on the theological significance of aesthetic data provided by each of the three major spheres of aesthetic perception and response. Throughout the work; the underlying question is how each of these spheres serves as a source (however ambiguous) of revelation. Although he frames much of his argument in terms of Catholic theology--from the Church Fathers to Karl Rahner; Hans urs von Balthasar; Bernard Lonergan; and David Tracy--Viladesau also makes extensive use of ideas from the Protestant theologian of the arts Gerardus van der Leeuw; and draws insights from such diverse thinkers as Hans Goerg Gadamer; Wolfhart Pannenberg; and Iris Murdoch. His analysis is enlivened by the artistic examples he selects: the music of Mozart as contemplated by Karl Barth; Schoenbergs opera Moses und Aron; the sculptures of Chartres Cathedral; poems by Rilke and Michelangelo; and many others. What emerges from this study is what Viladeseau terms a transcendental theology of aesthetics. In Thomistic terms; he finds that beauty is not only a perfection but a transcendental. That is; any instance of beauty; rightly perceived and rightly understood; can be seen to imply divinely beautiful things as well. In other words; Viladesau argues; God is the absolute and necessary condition for the possibility of beauty.