The Father of Lights: A Theology of Beauty (Theology for the Life of the World)

by Junius Johnson

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2020

Overview

“Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). This verse conveys a powerful image of God as the source and referent of all beauty. This book demonstrates how the experience of beauty is related to our inherent longing for the God who is reflected in such moments. Richly informed by Junius Johnson’s expertise on Bonaventure and von Balthasar, the book offers a robust, full-orbed theology of beauty, showing how it has functioned as a theological concept from biblical times to the present day.

Key Features

• Explores how the experience of beauty is related to our inherent longing for the God
• Presents a robust, full-orbed theology of beauty
• Examines how beauty has functioned as a theological concept from biblical times to the present day

Contents

Part 1: The Encounter with Beauty

• Eternity in Our Hearts: Memory, Beauty, and Divinity
• The Eyes of Faith: Contuition and Spiritual Vision
• Beauty and Analogy

Part 2: The Meaning of Beauty

• Word and Concept: The Nature of Language
• Concept Squared: The Nature of Metaphor
• Res and Concept: Things as Signs
• Res Sacramenti: The Nature of Sacraments
• Radiant Res: Icons and Ecstasy

Praise for the Print Edition

In theological aesthetics the lineaments of Thomistic thought have long been most formative, but now, in this rich, closely argued and admirably synthetic work of theological aesthetics, Junius Johnson has contributed a powerful adequation of St. Bonaventure’s conception of beauty—both as gift from the Father of Lights and as illumination leading back to him. Beauty rightly perceived—that is, in a necessarily subjective appropriation of objective reality—enables a fuller understanding of God, in Bonaventure’s term a contuition. We are simultaneously dazzled both by beauty in the world and by beauty’s Giver. Johnson’s thoughtful book, conversing as it does with the likes of Von Balthasar, Boudrillard, Barthes, and Ospensky, is brimming with insight, a remarkably fruitful excursus in philosophical theology in which many will find worthy treasures.

—David Lyle Jeffrey, FRSC, distinguished senior fellow, Baylor Institute for Studies in Religion; emeritus distinguished professor of literature and the humanities, Baylor University

Product Details

• Title: The Father of Lights: A Theology of Beauty
• Author: Junius Johnson
• Series: Theology for the Life of the World
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2020
• Logos Release Date: 2020
• Pages: 210
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Aesthetics › Religious aspects--Christianity; God (Christianity) › Beauty; Philosophical theology
• ISBNs: 9781493427222, 9781540962492, 9781540964892, 9781493427208, 1493427229, 1540962490, 1540964892, 1493427202
• Resource ID: LLS:FTHRLGHTSLFWRLD
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:08:36Z

About Junius Johnson

Junius Johnson is assistant professor of historical theology at Baylor University, a research fellow at the Rivendell Institute at Yale, and a research associate at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He is the author of Christ and Analogy.