Aquinas on Beauty

Aquinas on Beauty
Author: Christopher Scott Sevier
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2015-02-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0739184253

Aquinas on Beauty explores the nature and role of beauty in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Beginning with a standard definition of beauty provided by Aquinas, it explores each of the components of that definition. The result is a comprehensive account of Aquinas’s formal view on the subject, supplemented by an exploration into Aquinas’s commentary on Dionysius’s Divine Names, including a comparison of his views with those of both Dionysius and those of Aquinas’s mentor, Albert the Great. The book also highlights the tight connection in Aquinas’s thought between aesthetics and ethics, and illustrates how Aquinas preserves what is best about aesthetic traditions preceding him, and anticipates what is best about aesthetic traditions that would follow, marrying objective and subjective aesthetic intuitions and charting a kind of via media between the common extremes.

The God Who Is Beauty

The God Who Is Beauty
Author: Brendon Thomas Sammon
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0227902211

In the beginning was beauty, and beauty was with God, and beauty was God. If the tradition of divine names, that (in its Christian form) originates with Dionysius the Areopagite and includes among its ranks Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and others, is correct in identifying God with the name beauty, then repurposing the Prologue to John's Gospel in this way seems hardly controversial. For if beauty is a divine name then not only is it fitting to say God is beautiful, but it is equally fitting to say that God is beauty itself. However, like most arguments from fittingness-that is to say, arguments whose veracity derives from the congruency, proportion, or harmony between the various elements of a proposition or idea rather than from some categoricallyhigher, or univocally determinate, logical necessity-the simplicity of its utterance stands in stark contrast to the complexity of its intelligible content. It is the aim of the present work is to explore what it means to say that beauty is a divine name.

Dynamic Transcendentals

Dynamic Transcendentals
Author: Alice Ramos
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2012-05-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0813219655

Addressing contemporary interest in the relationship between metaphysics and ethics, as well as the significance of beauty for ethics, Alice Ramos presents an accessible study of the transcendentals and provides a dynamic rather than static view of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Beauty and Being

Beauty and Being
Author: Piotr Jaroszyński
Publisher:
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2011
Genre: Aesthetics
ISBN: 9781771100335

Beauty: A Very Short Introduction

Beauty: A Very Short Introduction
Author: Roger Scruton
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2011-03-24
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0199229759

In a book that is itself beautifully written, renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores this timeless concept, asking what makes an object--either in art, in nature, or the human form--beautiful.--From publisher description.

Medieval Philosophy and the Transcendentals

Medieval Philosophy and the Transcendentals
Author: Jan Aertsen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2021-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9004451420

Students of Thomas Aquinas have so far lacked a comprehensive study of his doctrine of the transcendentals. This volume fills this lacuna, showing the fundamental character of the notions of being, one, true and good for his thought. The book inquires into the beginnings of the doctrine in the thirteenth century and explains the relation of the transcendental way of thought to Aquinas's conception of metaphysics. It analyzes "Being," "One," "True," "Good" and "Beautiful" individually and discusses their importance for the philosophical knowledge of God. Medieval Philosophy and the Transcendentals: The Case of Thomas Aquinas is intended as a contribution to the question "What is philosophy in the Middle Ages?". It argues that the doctrine of the transcendentals is essential for understanding medieval philosophy.

Restoring Ancient Beauty

Restoring Ancient Beauty
Author: James Keating
Publisher: American Maritain Association
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2021-06-18
Genre:
ISBN: 9780997220537

Until recently it has been commonplace to believe that Vatican II represents a permanent sidelining of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas for theology. The documents of that council, it is said, moved away from the scholastic categories that had informed Catholic theological work since the Reformation, and most particularly since Vatican I. There is some truth to this, of course, since the council fathers preferred biblical formulations in a personalist and pastoral mode over the kinds of concepts one finds in Neo-Thomism. The effect of this shift on theological education is well known. Indeed, so swift was the change that one finds figures as different as Jacques Maritain, Karl Rahner, and Joseph Ratzinger worrying soon after the Council's conclusion that the Angelic Doctor had all but disappeared from Catholic theology. Each in his own way sought to call the Church's intellectuals back to a consideration of Aquinas to address not simply philosophical issues but those dealing with the central doctrinal mysteries of the faith. It is now clear that after decades of experimentation with various philosophical systems, a number of scholars have either found a new audience for their work or have recently discovered for themselves the ancient beauty of Aquinas' theological work. The present volume brings together a number of prominent scholars to explore the different ways in which the writings of Thomas Aquinas on Christ, grace, faith, and other properly theological themes retain their relevance, and indeed, constitute a firmer basis upon which to explore these mysteries than many recent streams of thought. Contributors include: Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap., David C. Schindler, Michael Torre, Jessica Murdoch, Francis Feingold, Thomas Rourke, Marie George, James Hanink, John F.X. Knasas, Heather Erb, Joshua Schultz, Anton Schaube, William Hamant, Joel Johnson, Philip Berns, Daniel Drain, Fred Boley, Justin Matchulat, and Michael Humphreys.