William Peter van den Bercken

Jonathan Sutton

This volume contains selected papers of a conference in 2004 at Utrecht University on aesthetics as a religious factor in Eastern and Western Christianity. They discuss the role of aesthetics in the presentation and expression of Christian faith in Catholic and Orthodox tradition. During its history Christianity has produced many works of art: church architecture, iconography, painting, music and literary texts. And in Orthodoxy beauty has always been the main form of religious expression, more than verbal presentation of Christian teaching, which is embedded in the aesthetic context of liturgy. In Christian theology beauty has often been seen as a form of divine revelation, related to the mystery of incarnation. The relation between aesthetics and religious belief has acquired new relevance in our secularised world. Today the visible products of Catholic and Orthodox aesthetics are for many people the main means through which they come into contact with Christianity and many people without affinity to religion are attracted by the beauty of Christian art, inside and outside the church. In modern religious studies the experience of beauty is recognised as a factor in explaining religious feelings. The papers are divided in four sections: 1. Comparative aspects of Orthodox and Catholic aesthetics, 2. Religious aesthetics in Russian literary culture, 3. Applied aesthetics in church art, 4. Art-theoretical, ideological and religious-philosophical aspects.

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