Triune Beauty and the Ugly Cross: Towards a Theological Aesthetic

Abstract

God’s triune beauty is most fully revealed in the ugly spectacle of the cross, and the close connection between the concepts of beauty and glory in scripture reveals how a cruciform theological aesthetic can illuminate our understanding of God, humanity, and salvation. Moreover, Christian discipleship calls for counter-cultural ways of seeing beauty and being beautiful in the midst of a broken world. This cruciform aesthetic also informs the limited but powerful role that the arts may play in the human vocation to behold, delight in, and reflect the beauty of God by the power of the Spirit.