In one of our newest additions to the library, author L. Clifton Edwards captures the beauty of God’s creations in tandem with philosophy, literature, and many other mediums. The most surprising of these mediums is the study of aesthetics, which is, in a word, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It works side by side with art philosophy and has major ties to nature and its perceptual wonder. Everyone has a different view of beauty and taste, which is where the term “personal aesthetic” comes from. This doesn’t just apply to our day-to-day lives, however; all of us have a unique aesthetic viewpoint when it comes to God.
“With many, if not most, now convinced of the inadequacy of traditional arguments for God’s existence, there is need to explore other ways of grounding belief in God, and it is here that the arts become relevant and not least among them, God’s own artistry in creation.”
In the secularization of the modern age, Christians have found themselves turning to nature, as God’s mark is more prominent to us in nature than among man-made things. For example, many monastic orders choose to build their monasteries in the wilderness and frequent it in prayer. Edwards examines how human aesthetics and religion interact with the natural world using studies in different sciences. After giving it a closer study, what initially appears to be a jumble of research reveals a keen theological grasp that exceeds many contemporary authors. Many theologians have used science and philosophy to understand the invisible God; Edwards exhibits a great mastery of every linked field of study to present a method of appreciating God's beauty that most people would take for granted.
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