The Father of Lights

A Robust Theological Examination of Beauty. Junius Johnson offers a full-orbed theology of beauty, showing how it has functioned as a theological concept from biblical times to the present day. "'The beauty of holiness' has long been a familiar phrase with a somewhat elusive meaning. With a combination of scholarly precision and infectious relish for the theological task, Junius Johnson gives a new clarity to this phrase. Beauty is interpreted as the manifestation of a sanctity whose fullness we both remember and anticipate as we encounter a world of creatures densely, dazzlingly, and divinely interconnected. "-Ben Quash. , Centre for Arts and the Sacred, King's College London "In theological aesthetics the lineaments of Thomistic thought have long been most formative, but now, in this rich, closely argued, and admirably synthetic work of theological aesthetics, Junius Johnson has contributed a powerful adequation of St. Bonaventure's conception of beauty-both as gift from the Father of Lights and as illumination leading back to him. Beauty rightly perceived-that is, in a necessarily subjective appropriation of objective reality-enables a fuller understanding of God, in Bonaventure's term a 'contuition. ' We are simultaneously dazzled by beauty in the world and by beauty's Giver. Johnson's thoughtful book, conversing as it does with the likes of von Balthasar, Baudrillard, Barthes, and Ouspensky, is brimming with insight, a remarkably fruitful excursus in philosophical theology in which many will find worthy treasures. "-David Lyle Jeffrey, FRSC. , Baylor Institute for Studies in Religion, Baylor University"Johnson's work is an illuminating meditation on the experience of beauty and that experience's implications for the world of theology. "-Anne M. Carpenter. , St. Mary's College of California