God, Morality, and Beauty

The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Problem of Evil

Randall B. Bush

Randall B. Bush analyzes the ways unacknowledged axiological assumptions (e.g., about what is important, why human beings are valuing creatures, and where the capacity to value comes from) prejudice the perspectives and approaches of various academic disciplines, especially in the social sciences and the humanities. The disciplines of ethics and aesthetics provide the most useful tools for a philosophy of value, but academic overspecialization has compartmentalized and segregated these disciplines from others, threatening to unravel the unity of conceptions of the moral and the beautiful in human existence. Bush argues that a dialectical approach to conflicts between ethics and aesthetics can point to a broader, axiological vision––informed by a Trinitarian conception of reality––in which the whole, a coherent theory of value, is more than the sum of its parts.

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 376 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-9787-0474-9 • Hardback • July 2019 • $135.00 • (£104.00)

978-1-9787-0476-3 • Paperback • November 2021 • $45.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-9787-0475-6 • eBook • July 2019 • $43.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Religion / Christian Theology / Ethics, Philosophy / Aesthetics

God, Morality, and Beauty

The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Problem of Evil

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Randall B. Bush analyzes the ways unacknowledged axiological assumptions (e.g., about what is important, why human beings are valuing creatures, and where the capacity to value comes from) prejudice the perspectives and approaches of various academic disciplines, especially in the social sciences and the humanities. The disciplines of ethics and aesthetics provide the most useful tools for a philosophy of value, but academic overspecialization has compartmentalized and segregated these disciplines from others, threatening to unravel the unity of conceptions of the moral and the beautiful in human existence. Bush argues that a dialectical approach to conflicts between ethics and aesthetics can point to a broader, axiological vision––informed by a Trinitarian conception of reality––in which the whole, a coherent theory of value, is more than the sum of its parts.

Details

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 376 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-9787-0474-9 • Hardback • July 2019 • $135.00 • (£104.00)

978-1-9787-0476-3 • Paperback • November 2021 • $45.99 • (£35.00)

978-1-9787-0475-6 • eBook • July 2019 • $43.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Religion / Christian Theology / Ethics, Philosophy / Aesthetics

Author

Randall B. Bush is university professor of philosophy at Union University.

Table of Contents

1. Questions of Value

2. An All-Encompassing Compass of Value

3. Identifying Value-Indicators

4. The Function of Value-Indicators within Frameworks of Contextualization

5. Language as a Vehicle of Value

6. Action as A Vehicle of Value

7. Story, Narrative, and Drama as Mediators of Ultimate Value

8. The Struggle of Good against Evil

9. The Divine-Human Metanarrative in a Trinitarian Context

Reviews

Modern philosophy tends to divorce morality from aesthetics, the good from the beautiful. In this work Randall Bush returns to the ancient tradition that tries to see these types of value as closely related. He also argues that value of all kinds is trivialized when it is divorced from the transcendent and tries to show how the trinitarian view of transcendence found in Christian faith provides a rich resource for thinking about value questions. Bush covers an amazing range of thinkers and questions in this ambitious and original work.
— C. Stephen Evans, Baylor University and the University of St. Andrews

The last ten years or so have seen a burgeoning of literature concerned with casting a Christian vision of reality that is rigorously trinitarian, and that allows resonances between different disciplinary fields to be heard. This ambitious book shows clearly why such efforts matter. Comprehensive and immensely readable, it deserves to be widely read.
— Jeremy Begbie, Duke University

In this remarkable book, Bush succeeds very well in his aim of finding bridges between wide-ranging subject areas – God, morality, beauty and the problem of evil. This book altogether avoids the trap of superficial treatment that often awaits those who attempt interdisciplinary study. With a well-informed and yet imaginative focus on the doctrine of the Trinity and an appreciation of the function of narrative which comes from being a published story-teller himself, Bush develops a connectivity which enables a convincingly holistic vision of reality. For all those who are frustrated by discussions of either theological ethics that ignores aesthetics, or aesthetics that fails to relate to ethics, this book is essential reading.
— Paul S. Fiddes, Principal Emeritus, Regent's Park College, University of Oxford