Introductory Bibliography on Beauty & Theological Aesthetics
compiled by Laura Smit - Calvin College

For a much more complete version of Dr. Smit's bibliography (45 pages), click here.

Avis, Paul
God and the Creative Imagination: Metaphor, Symbol and Myth in Religion and Theology. London/New York: Routledge, 1999.

Balthasar, Hans Urs von
The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics. 7 volumes. San Francisco: Ignatius.

Barron, Robert
And Now I See. . . : A Theology of Transformation. New York: Crossroad, 1998.

Barth, Karl
“The Eternity and Glory of God.” In Church Dogmatics, vol. II-1, chapter VI.31.3. Trans. T. H. Parker, et al. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1957.

Beckley, Bill and David Shapiro, editors
Uncontrollable Beauty: Toward a New Aesthetics. New York: Allworth Press, 1998.

Berdyaev, Nicolas
The Meaning of the Creative Act. Trans. Donald A. Lowrie. London: Victor Gollancz. 1955.

Berleant, Arnold
Living in the Landscape: Toward an Aesthetics of Environment. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1997.

Bonaventure
The Journey of the Mind to God. Trans. Philotheus Boehner. Ed. Stephen F. Brown. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 1993.

De reductione artium ad theologiam (The Reduction of the Arts to Theology). Trans. Emma Healy. St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute Press, 1955.

Broudy, Harry S.
Enlightened Cherishing: An Essay on Aesthetic Education. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1994.

Brown, Frank Burch
Religious Aesthetics: A Theological Study of Making and Meaning. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Transfiguration: Poetic Metaphor and the Languages of Religious Belief. Chapel Hill/London: University of North Carolina Press, 1983.

Budd, Malcolm
Values of Art: Pictures, Poetry and Music. London: Penguin Books, 1995.

Bustard, Ned, editor
It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God. Square Halo Press, 2000.

Chandrasekhar, S.
Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science. Chicago / London: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Chapman, Emmanuel
Saint Augustine's Philosophy of Beauty. New York/London: Sheed & Ward, 1939.

Coleman, Earle J.
Creativity and Spirituality: Bonds between Art and Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Cook, Nicholas
Music, Imagination, and Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.

Cooper, David, editor
A Companion to Aesthetics. Oxford/Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1992.

Copland, Aaron
Music and Imagination. The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures for 1951-52. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952. 1980 edition.

Dewey, John
Art as Experience. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1934.

Dubay, Thomas
The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999,

Eco, Umberto
Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages. Trans. Hugh Bredin. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas. Trans. Hugh Bredin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Etcoff, Nancy
Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty. New York: Doubleday, 1999.

Eusden, John Dykstra & John H. Westerhoff, III
Sensing Beauty: Aesthetics, the Human Spirit, and the Church. Cleveland: United Church Press, 1998.

Evdokimov, Paul
The Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty. Trans. Seven Bigham. Redondo Beach, CA: Oakwood Publications, 1990.

Fischer, Ernst Peter
Beauty and the Beast: The Aesthetic Moment in Science. Trans. Elizabeth Oehlkers. New York / London: Plenum Trade, 1999,

Gadamer, Hans-Georg
The Relevance of the Beautiful and Other Essays. Ed. Robert Bernasconi. Trans. Nicholas Walker. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Garcia-Rivera, Alejandro
The Community of the Beautiful: A Theological Aesthetics. Liturgical Press, 1999.

George, Marie
“Love of the Beautiful and the Specificity of Man.” Catholic Dossier, January/February 1997.

Gilby, Thomas
Poetic Experience: An Introduction to Thomist Aesthetic. New York: Sheed & Ward Inc., 1934.

Hanslick, Eduard
The Beautiful in Music. Trans. Gustav Cohen. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1957).

Harries, Richard
Art and the Beauty of God: A Christian Understanding. London/New York: Mowbray, 2000.

Harrison, Carol
Beauty and Revelation in the Thought of Saint Augustine. Oxford: Clarendon press, 1992.

Heisenberg, Werner
"Science and the Beautiful." Alexandria. 1997 (volume 4), pp. 25-40.

Hickey, David
The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty. Los Angeles: Art Issues Press, 1993.

Huntley, H. E.
The Divine Proportion: A Study in Mathematical Beauty. New York: Dover Publications, 1970.

Kirwan, James
Beauty. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999.

Kovach, Francis J.
Philosophy of Beauty. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.

Küng, Hans
Art and the Question of Meaning. Trans., Edward Quinn. New York: Crossroad, 1981.

Lee-Thorp, Karen & Cynthia Hicks
Why Beauty Matters. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1997.

Leeuw, Geraardus van der
Sacred and Profane Beauty. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Wilson, 1963.

Lorand, Ruth
Aesthetic Order : A Philosophy of Beauty and Art. Routledge Studies in Twentieth Century Philosophy. London/New York: Routledge, 2000.

McAllister, James W.
Beauty, Revolution and Science. Ithaca / London: Cornell University Press, 1996.

MacGregor, Geddes
Aesthetic Experience in Religion. London: The Macmillan Co., 1947.

McIntyre, John
Faith, Theology and Imagination. Edinburgh: The Handsel Press, 1987.

Maritain, Jacques
Art and Scholasticism. Trans. J. F. Scanlan. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954.

Art and Poetry. New York: Philosophical Library, 1943.

Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry. Cleveland/New York: World Publishing Co., 1954.

Martin, James Alfred, Jr.
Beauty and Holiness: The Dialogue between Aesthetics and Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.

Maurer, Armand A.
About Beauty: A Thomistic Interpretation. Houston, TX: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1983.

May, Rollo
My Quest for Beauty. San Francisco/Dallas/New York: Saybrook, 1985.

Miles, Margaret R.
Desire and Delight: A New Reading of Augustine’s Confessions. New York: Crossroad, 1992.

Plotinus on Body and Beauty. Oxford / Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.

Reading for Life: Beauty, Pluralism, and Responsibility. New York: Continuum, 1997.

Miller, John, editor
Beauty. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997.

Montgomery, Marion
Making, The Proper Habit of Our Being: Essays Speculative, Reflective, Argumentative. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2000.

The Truth of Things: Liberal Arts and The Recovery of Reality. Dallas: Spence Publishing Company, 1999.

Romantic Confusions of the Good: Beauty as Truth, Truth Beauty. New York / London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997.

Morey, C. R.
Christian Art. New York: The Norton Company, 1935. 1958 edition.

Mothersill, Mary
Beauty Restored. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984.

Murphy, Francesca Aran
Christ the Form of Beauty: A Study in Theology and Literature. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1995.

Navone, John
Enjoying God's Beauty. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999.

Toward a Theology of Beauty. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1996.

Nichols, Aidan
The Art of God Incarnate. London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1980.

The Word Has Been Abroad: A Guide Through Balthasar’s Aesthetics. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1998.

No Bloodless Myth: A Guide Through Balthasar’s Dramatics. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2000.

Nicolson, Marjorie Hope
Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite. Seattle/London: University of Washington Press, 1997.

Oakes, Edward T.
Pattern of Redemption: The Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. New York, Continuum, 1994.

O'Connell, Robert J.
Art and the Christian Intelligence in St. Augustine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978.

Pieper, Josef
Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation. Trans. Lothar Krauth. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1988.

Pointing, Horace B.
Art, Religion and Common Life. London: S.C.M. Press, 1947.

Polanyi, Michael
Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.

The Tacit Dimension. Garden City: Anchor Books, 1967.

Portnoy, Julius
The Philosopher and Music: A Historical Outline. New York: The Humanities Press, 1954.

Rahner, Karl
“The Theology of the Symbol” and “Poetry and the Christian.” In Theological Investigations: More Recent Writings. Vol. IV. Trans., Kevin Smyth. Baltimore: Helicon Press; London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966.

Ramos, Alice, editor
Beauty, Art, and the Polis. Washington, DC: American Maritain Association, 2000.

Riches, John, editor
The Analogy of Beauty: The Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1986.

Roberts, Louis
The Theological Aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987.

Rookmaaker, H. R.
Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. Leicester/Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1978.

Ross, Stephen David
The Gift of Beauty: The Good as Art. Albany: State University of New York, 1996.

Santayana, George
Interpretations of Poetry and Religion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957.

The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outline of Aesthetic Theory. New York: Dover, 1955.

Saward, John
The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty: Art, Sanctity and the Truth of Catholicism. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1996.
Sayers, Dorothy
The Mind of the Maker. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987.

“Towards a Christian Aesthetic.” The New Orpheus, ed. Nathan A. Scott. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1964. 3-20.

Scarry, Elaine
On Beauty and Being Just. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Scholen, Max
Art and Beauty. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1932.

Scola, Angelo
Hans Urs von Balthasar: A Theological Style. Ressourcement: Retrieval and Renewal in Catholic Thought, edited by David L. Schindler. Trans., J.T. and A.C.T. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.

Scruton, Roger
The Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Art and Imagination: A Study in the Philosophy of Mind. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 1998.

The Aesthetic Understanding; Essays in the Philosophy of Art and Culture. London/NY: Methuen, 1983.

Perictione in Colphon: Reflections on the Aesthetic Way of Life. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2000.

Seerveld, Calvin
On Being Human: Imaging God in the Modern World. Burlington, ON: Welch Publishing, 1988.

Rainbows for a Fallen World. Toronto: Tuppence Press, 1980.

Sherry, Patrick
Spirit and Beauty: An Introduction to Theological Aesthetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.

Sircello, Guy
Love and Beauty. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.

A New Theory of Beauty. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.

Steiner, Wendy
Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art. New York: The Free Press, 2001.

Tadie, Andrew A. and Michael H. Macdonald
Permanent Things: Toward the Recovery of a More Human Scale at the End of the Twentieth Century. Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, UK: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1995.

Taylor, James S.
Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Thistlethwaite, David
The Art of God and the Religions of Art. Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1998.

Turner, Frederick
Beauty: The Value of Values. Charlottesville/London: University Press of Virginia, 1991.

Viladesau, Richard
Theological Aesthetics: God in Imagination, Beauty, and Art. New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Wechsler, Judith, editor
On Aesthetics in Science. Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press, 1978.

Wegener, Charles
The Discipline of Taste and Feeling. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Williams, Charles
The Figure of Beatrice: A Study in Dante. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, (1943) 1994.

Wolterstorff, Nicholas
Art in Action. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1980.

Works and Worlds of Art. Ed., Jonathan Cohen. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.

Zemach, Eddy M.
Real Beauty. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.

Zuidervaart, Lambert AND Henry Luttikhuizen, editors
Pledges of Jubilee: Essays on the Arts and Culture, in Honor of Calvin G. Seerveld. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1995.

Zylstra, Henry
Testament of Vision. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1961.