Re-envisaging Ruskin’s Types: Beautiful Order as Divine Revelation

The 19th-century art critic John Ruskin offers an intriguing approach to nature as ‘divine art’: he sees in natural beauty ‘types’ or artistic images of the Godhead. Ruskin’s epistemology requires some refinement, but he offers a potentially fruitful approach to the divine revealed in the natural wo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Edwards, L. Clifton (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage 2012
In: Irish theological quarterly
Year: 2012, Volume: 77, Issue: 2, Pages: 165-181
Further subjects:B Beauty
B Epistemology
B natural revelation
B John Ruskin
B Theological Aesthetics
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:The 19th-century art critic John Ruskin offers an intriguing approach to nature as ‘divine art’: he sees in natural beauty ‘types’ or artistic images of the Godhead. Ruskin’s epistemology requires some refinement, but he offers a potentially fruitful approach to the divine revealed in the natural world. I reformulate Ruskin’s typology with reference to the epistemology of Michael Polanyi: through this approach, one may enter into Ruskin’s Christian ‘vision’ of nature with its unique symbolic ‘practice.’ From this standpoint, I develop Ruskin’s types relating to natural order. My claim, in line with Ruskin’s, is that within human experience of a beautiful world is a revelation of divine order.
ISSN:1752-4989
Contains:Enthalten in: Irish theological quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0021140012445664