Förnimmelser av det gudomliga. Om teologins estetiska vändning

Abstract

The present article departs from the increased significance ascribed to questions concerning arts and aesthetics in contemporary academic theology as well as in church life. This development is given the designation ‘aesthetical turn’ and the content of the article tries to, in a broad outline, situate this phenomenon in the history of philosophical reflection on aesthetic issues. Originally an Enlightenment and Romantic reaction against a de-corporalized rational ideal, aesthetical reflection in seminal thinkers like Baumgarten, Kant, Hegel and the German early Romantics affirms sense experience as a vital component in the human grasp of the world and simultaneously lays the philosophical foundation for an autonomous artistic sphere in society. Later developments ascribe a unique metaphysical quality to the arts, which frequently go into clinch with the religious sphere in promoting a self-image as the modern equivalent of functions filled by religion in pre-modern society. In spite of this divide Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Paul Tillich in different but inter-related ways use aspects of aesthetic philosophy in their theological projects. Postmodern theologies share the contemporary critique of separated artistic autonomy but at the same time affirm a number of (negative) epistemological implications found in Romantic aesthetics. Thus the importance of artistic explorations of the Christian faith is today acknowledged as a parallel and interconnected trajectory along with theoretical theological knowledge.