The Eclipse and Recovery of Beauty: A Lonergan Approach

Description

According to the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, a world that has lost sight of beauty is a world riddled with skepticism, moral and aesthetic relativism, conflicting religious worldviews, and escalating ecological crises. In The Eclipse and Recovery of Beauty, John D. Dadosky uses Kierkegaard and Nietzsche's negative aesthetics to outline the context of that loss, and presents an argument for reclaiming beauty as a metaphysical property of being. Inspired by Bernard Lonergan's philosophy of consciousness, Dadosky presents a philosophy of beauty that is grounded in contemporary Thomistic thought. Responding to Balthasar, he argues for a concept of beauty that can be experienced, understood, judged, created, contemplated, and even loved. Deeply engaged with the work of Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kant, among others, The Eclipse and Recovery of Beauty will be essential reading for those interested in contemporary philosophy and theology. Cover Contents Preface Abbreviations Introduction 1 The Eclipse of Beauty and Its Recovery The Achievement of Thomistic Metaphysics and Its Demise A Post-Kantian Transposition of Thomistic Metaphysics Considerations for a Contemporary Philosophy of Beauty Lonergan’s Philosophy and Hermeneutics: A Brief Overview Conclusion 2 Every Being Is Beautiful Beauty as a Transcendental Property of Being The Development of Transcendental Beauty Aquinas and Transcendental Beauty? The Fourth Period Beauty: A Thomistic Interpretation The Conditions of Beauty Further Questions The Perception of Beauty Beauty and Art Beauty: A Lonergan Approach? 3 Violence and the Loss of Beauty Displacement and Distortion of Beauty Nietzsche’s Aesthetics Girard’s Critique of Nietzsche Dionysus and the Crucified Culpability in the Collective Murder Dionysus as a Mimicked Distortion of Christ A Reorientation of Nietzschean Aesthetics? Conclusion 4 Recovering Beauty in the Subject Kierkegaard’s Spheres of Existence Balthasar’s Critique: A Closer Examination The Existential Spheres and Intentional Consciousness Conclusion 5 The End of Aesthetic Experience? The Loss of Aesthetic Experience Major Post-Kantian Approaches to Aesthetic Experience Shusterman: “The End of Aesthetic Experience” Lonergan and Aesthetic Experience The Unrestricted Desire for Beauty Freedom from Instrumentality Elemental Meaning Ulterior Significance and “Surplus of Meaning” Transformative and Distortive Aspects of Aesthetic Experience Lonergan and Shusterman The Sensible and Intellectual Perception and Apprehension of Beauty Aesthetic Experience and the Sublime A Brief History of the Sublime The Sublime as Experienced Conclusion 6 The Intelligibility of Beauty Beauty and Architecture: The Example of Christopher Alexander Alexander’s Fifteen Principles Alexander’s Principles and Aquinas The Intelligibility of Beauty in Lonergan’s Theory of Consciousness Conclusion 7 Judgments of Beauty Aesthetic Judgments in Kant Four Moments of Aesthetic Judgments Lonergan and Judgment Value in Method in Theology Judging Beauty for Lonergan A Lonergan Appropriation of Kant’s Four Moments Beauty and the Preferential Scale of Values Three Moments of Beauty Is Beauty Distinct from Goodness? Conclusion 8 Creating, Contemplating, and Loving Beauty The Aesthetic/Dramatic Operator Philosophy of Art Aesthetic and Artistic Patterns of Experience Art as Meaning Developing Lonergan’s View on Art Summing Up: Lonergan on Art Life and Beauty Ethical Living Contemplating Beauty Loving Beauty Beauty and God From Aesthetic Experience to the Beauty of God Conclusion 9 Philosophy for a Theology of Beauty A Summary and Overview Towards a Theology of Beauty Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index