Brian Hamilton-Vise

The unsurpassable principle of every aesthetics

“The whole mystery of Christianity, that which distinguishes it so radically from every other religious project, is that the form does not stand in opposition to infinite light, for the reason that God has himself instituted and confirmed such form. And although, being finite and worldly, this form must die just as every other beautiful thing on earth must die, nevertheless it does not go down into the realm of formlessness, leaving behind an infinite tragic longing, but, rather, it rises up to God as form, as the form which now, in God himself, has definitively become one with the divine Word and Light which God has intended for and bestowed upon the world. The form itself must participate in the process of death and resurrection, and thus it becomes coextensive with God’s Light-Word. This makes the Christian principle the superabundant and unsurpassable principle of every aesthetics; Christianity becomes the aesthetic religion par excellence.”

— Hans Urs von Balthasar, Glory of the Lord: (1) Seeing the Form, p. 216.

23 February 2007 | Comments (0)
Tags: Aesthetics, Hans Urs von Balthasar