Creation's Beauty as Revelation: Toward a Creational Theology of Natural Beauty

Description: With an interdisciplinary approach Edwards utilizes literature aesthetics world religions and continental philosophy as avenues into the theology of natural beauty. This is an epistemological look at our aesthetically charged knowing of God through nature. Emphasizing our embodied experience of the world Edwards examines the phenomenon of perceptual beauty while questioning traditional notions of Gods metaphysical beauty. Drawing upon Michael Polanyis philosophy of science Edwards explores the human aesthetic and religious interface with the natural world. This philosophical approach is then linked to the poetic: Polanyis tacit knowledge and Jean-Luc Marions saturated phenomena give support to Wordsworths pregnant vision of the natural world. This approach culminates in a re-envisaging of John Ruskins typology of natural beauty: Ruskins vision of the world can be adapted toward an understanding of natural revelation. Edwards brings this Romantic theology back across the Atlantic in dialogue with American nature writers and the uniquely American experience of wilderness and frontier.