Visual Art as Theology

Visual Art as Theology is a post-critical aesthetics for theology based on the epistemology of Michael Polanyi. This aesthetics is employed in examining Paul Tillich's philosophy of art. Polanyi's epistemology is extended into an aesthetics which moves beyond the impasse left by Tillich's work in art and theology. This book demonstrates an appreciation of the possibilities and problems of Tillich's thought, and moves beyond Tillich towards a more integrative program.

Autorentext

The Autor: Barbara Dee Bennett Baumgarten is a visual artist and scholar who approaches the relationship between the visual arts and theology from the sensitivity of an experienced artist. She holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley in Theology/Religion and the Arts and is currently teaching Anglican Liturgics at the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, California.

Zusammenfassung
"Barbara Baumgarten helps us to ask questions of art so that it gives us enlivening answers... She shows how art may go beyond illustrating what we already know." (Doug Adams, Pacific School of Religion and The Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley)
"With scholarly faithfulness to the materials she uses, Barbara Baumgarten simultaneously redefines the issues in art and religion. Her work is a marvelous combination of crossing boundaries and providing constructive frames of reference. To read her is to have a learning experience of the first order". (John Dillenberger, Professor Emeritus, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley) "The book moves at a brisk pace and offers wonderfully concise and lucid summaries of both Polanyi's epistemology and Tillich's views on art...the book represents a creative appropriation and extension of Polanyi's epistemology and will be of interest to anyone whose passions lie with any combination of Polanyi, epistemology, art and religion." (Paul Lewis, Tradition and Discovery: The Polanyi Society Periodical)