God Is Beauty

Theology of the Body Institute Press releases the first-ever English language edition of a long-lost treasure from the St. John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) archives. Originally delivered in 1962 for artists, "God Is Beauty" features Karol Wojtyla's penetrating spiritual exercises on divine beauty and its reflection in our humanity (and in the art we produce). The retreat itself, of course, forms the heart of this attractive volume. To aid you in mining its many riches, it is followed by an extensive commentary by Dr. Christopher West and various shorter reflections from authors who are distinguished in the fields of theology and art and whose hearts and works have been transformed by the themes in this retreat.In this book, you will be shown:* The interior journey of "the ache" an artist must take to produce transcendent art.* How artists should process the tensions in life that can inform their work.* The one thing necessary to make everyone's life a reflection of divine beauty.Reflections from artists and theologians who are living out the themes of this retreat. * A road map for the Church to reclaim its role as the world's Patron of the Arts. Saint John Paul II (born Karol Jozef Wojtyla in 1920) was an actor, poet, and playwright before being ordained to the priesthood in Communist-occupied Poland in 1946. Ordained a bishop in 1958, he contributed significantly to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and was made a cardinal by Saint Paul VI in 1967. After the second papal conclave of 1978, Wojtyla became the first non-Italian pope in over 400 years. Having successfully fulfilled what he considered to be his mission to lead the Church into the third millennium, he died as one of the longest reigning popes in history on April 2, 2005. He was beatified by his immediate successor Pope Benedict XVI on May 1, 2011, and canonized by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014.

From celebrated Hollywood starlets to the covers of Cosmo, our society seems obsessed with beauty. Actress and Main Floor host Nancy Stafford (best known for her starring role as Michelle Thomas on Matlock) digs below our culture's fixation on outward appearance to show you that true beauty is more than skin-deep. "Every woman has beauty," says Stafford, "but not everyone sees it. I want you to see it." In Beauty by the Book she bares her heart to readers, laying out the Scriptures, promises, and truths women need to know to find their true value. Her liberating reflections will help you see yourself as God sees you -- worthy, lovable, and beautiful.“Mirror, Mirror, on the W all…” What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see a unique individual created in the image of Beauty itself—one chosen, Cherished, and valued in the eyes of God? If not, you may be looking in the wrong mirror—one distorted by emotional wounds, lies from your past, or the unrealistic standards of our culture. “Everyone has beauty and worth,” says Nancy Stafford, “but not everyone sees it. I want you to see it.” Nancy shares her own poignant story and holds up the true mirror of God’s Word—inviting you to see yourself as God sees you, to absorb His truth, and to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the King is enthralled by your beauty!

British bishop argues for a distinctively Christian approach to art.

The melodious recitation of the Quran is a fundamental aesthetic experience for Muslims, and the start of a compelling journey of ideas. In this important new book, the prominent German writer and Islamic scholar Navid Kermani considers the manner in which the Quran has been perceived, apprehended and experienced by its recipients from the time of the Prophet to the present day. Drawing on a wide range of Muslim sources, from historians, theologians and philosophers to mystics and literary scholars, Kermani provides a close reading of the nature of this powerful text. He proceeds to analyze ancient and modern testimonies about the impact of Quranic language from a variety of angles. Although people have always reflected on the reception of texts, images and sounds that they find beautiful or moving, Kermani explains that Islam provides a particularly striking example of the close correlation, grounded in a common origin, between art and religion, revelation and poetry, and religious and aesthetic experience. This major new book will enhance the dialogue between Islam and the West and will appeal to students and scholars of Islam and comparative religion, as well as to a wider readership interested in Islam and the Quran.

In the beginning was beauty, and beauty was with God, and beauty was God. If the tradition of divine names, that (in its Christian form) originates with Dionysius the Areopagite and includes among its ranks Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and others, is correct in identifying God with the name beauty, then repurposing the Prologue to John's Gospel in this way seems hardly controversial. For if beauty is a divine name then not only is it fitting to say God is beautiful, but it is equally fitting to say that God is beauty itself. However, like most arguments from fittingness-that is to say, arguments whose veracity derives from the congruency, proportion, or harmony between the various elements of a proposition or idea rather than from some categoricallyhigher, or univocally determinate, logical necessity-the simplicity of its utterance stands in stark contrast to the complexity of its intelligible content. It is the aim of the present work is to explore what it means to say that beauty is a divine name.

God's Beauty Parlor opens the Bible to the contested body of critical commentary on sex and sexuality known as queer theory and to masculinity studies. The author pursues the themes of homoeroticism, masculinity, beauty, and violence through such texts as the Song of Songs, the Gospels, the Letter to the Romans, and the Book of Revelation.

Editors Mark Husbands, Roger Lundin and Daniel J. Treier present ten essays that explore a Christian approach to beauty and the arts. The visual arts, music and literature are considered as well as the theological meaning and place of the arts in a fallen world redeemed by Christ.

Rarely do theologians take up the theme of God's beauty--even more rarely do they consider how God's beauty should shape the task of theology itself. But the psalmist says that the heart of the believer's desire is to behold the beauty of the Lord. In The Beauty of the Lord Jonathan King restores aesthetics as not merely a valid lens for theological reflection, but an essential one. Jesus, our incarnate Redeemer, displays the Triune God's beauty in his actions and person, from creation to final consummation. How can and should theology better reflect this unveiled beauty? The Beauty of the Lord is a renewal of a truly aesthetic theology and a properly theological aesthetics. --