Resurrection of beauty for a postmodern church

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to re-assert beauty as a fundamental and essential value within contemporary Christendom as it exists within a postmodern culture. Once a strong and meaningful concept within Christian belief, beauty has been lost over the passage of two millennia. This thesis examines the loss of beauty as a meaningful concept in western Christian belief, and offers a re-evaluation of the concept particularly within the postmodern world. Drawing together the fundamental concerns of postmodern society and the contribution that beauty is able to make from within the Christian context, this thesis demonstrates that "beauty" speaks to contemporary concerns and meets its deepest needs. Here, beauty, understood as the relational aspect of forms conceived by God, and offered to humanity as gift, is shown to overcome the affective sterility that has overtaken western society as an effect of enlightenment thought. An examination of the concept of beauty, particularly in the works of Thomas Aquinas, Jonathan Edwards and Gerard Manley Hopkins serves as a basis to posit a definition of beauty that is consistent with Christian beliefs without violating its unique content. Tracing the loss of beauty in western Christian thought and in western culture at large, and recognising the absence of a similar phenomenon within the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, suggests that the genius of these eastern traditions is their refusal to minimise the notion of "mystery" that stands at the heart of Christian revelation. The western Church then, is called to refocus on the centrality of the "mystery" inherent in her life. To this end, contemplation is proposed as the avenue wherein the believer experiences an intimate and transforming encounter with the Triune God which leads to the fruition of unique personhood that increasingly takes form as the "beauty of holiness."