David F. White

The thesis of the author is clearly stated as he insists that: "any fully Christian notion of truth . . . of forming Christians must include more than cognitive mastery. Any education that is truly Christian must also engage the heart, body, soul, the whole person" (p. 3). The volume then is a corrective to formation that is only cognition and instruction. The intellectual import of the Enlightenment resulted in viewing God as a "superfluous additive that can be subtracted without loss" (p. 4) resulting in the heart of modern secularity and the disenchantment described by Charles Taylor. Our historical moment constitutes an opportunity to recognize art and beauty as the fires burning within us that have been lit by God (p. 9). The title of the volume is a paraphrase of Hans Urs von Balthasar, the most important modern thinker on beauty (p. 50).

Observations and insights about beauty contextualize the phenomenon beyond ourselves and draw us towards God. Beauty then should be a consideration in Christian formation. One of the most important Christians relating to the beauty of the world is of course St. Francis of Assisi who is well known for being both a saint and one that is close to natural beauty. Balthasar idealizes the mother-child relationship as reflective of both beauty and the Trinity. On the other hand, he does not account for the child-father relationship and the author does not reflect on this notion either. Insofar as Christian formation is concerned the argument is that natural beauty should be a substantial dimension of Christian formation and education. The natural world is not objectified or a commodity but is "alive, dynamic, and wise" (p. 71).

The author maintains that mystery can not be reduced to concepts or doctrines (p. 93). Citing a secondary source that is considered exemplary of his aims the author recites a list of heroes that includes Malcolm X along with several positive American and Christian figures. On the other hand, he laments that often Christianity is partisan or only nationalistic. However, Malcolm X was a Muslim black nationalist who criticized Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Creative making in Christian formation should be a liberating construction of the self and the social order. Liturgy orients the body physically but more importantly refines our responses and heart unconsciously and fluidly. Perhaps the most helpful here are the practical suggestions and applications for Christian formation the author provides.

The social order for the author is to resist evil and embrace the good by which he means political liberalism. Standard contentious words are invoked as he applies the pre-Civil Rights mid-1950s work of James Baldwin, which was largely about gay and bisexual men, as applicable to a social critique of 2020s American culture.

The author does provide a corrective to arid and exclusively doctrinal varieties of Christianity to offer a liturgy of life and beauty. The perspective would be a starting point to revivify liberal churches which have lost adherents over the last several decades.… (mere)

Summary: An argument for the important role of aesthetics, of beauty, in Christian formation.

Since the Enlightenment, the formation of Christians in their faith has emphasized truth and goodness, reason and praxis, discarding aesthetics. David F. White argues for the recovery of a theologically shaped aesthetic in the church’s effort to form her people. He argues that the consequence of the neglect of beauty has been an excarnate spirituality, divorced from the materiality of being human in God’s good creation.

White begins by considering beauty as a phenomenon pervading all existence from microscopic life to the cosmos. He explores how beauty awakens us to the transcendent, displaces us from the center of existence, draws us into community, and bids us into living worthy lives. From this, he turns to the theological aesthetic of Hans Urs von Balthasar, his aesthetic epistemology and how this leads to our attunement to beauty in creation and the re-enchantment of the world.

Ultimate, an aesthetic of beauty finds its focus in the person of Christ who reveals the beauty of God.in human form. He encourages focus upon the material form of Christ, and a kind of attuned play with the narratives of his life, imagining them, and embodying them ourselves. This leads him into the poiesis or ideas of making of John Milbank. Making begins with the transcendent God who comes as verbum, speech that makes, creates. Humans in the image of God are called into participation in this making as a gift. Formation then cannot remain in our heads; we must get our hands dirty, engaging in a kind of reciprocal gift-giving with others.

White next focuses on liturgy as art. He draws on the insights of James K. A. Smith and the power of liturgies to form us, whether from the church or the culture and he considers how aesthetics can enhance the formative power of liturgy, particularly as beauty is understood as the telos of worship. He urges leaders to recover a vision of the beauty inherent in the rhythms and movements of liturgy, to weave artistic expression throughout and to use the eucharistic meal to focus on the beauty in the form of Christ.

We live in a world that alternates between beauty and terror and White advocates for the role of art in the movement from lament to hope. A theological aesthetic looks for the beauty of people amid brokenness, glimpsing healing amid suffering. He concludes with the image of a church of people formed by beauty as the flash mob interrupting the stale banality of modern life with sounds and sights of exquisite beauty reminding people of the other, better world for which they deeply long.

White, I believe, has made an important proposal in this book, that the church vitally needs to recover a theologically grounded aesthetic. This is more than just embracing the arts. It is understanding the role of beauty, with its focus on both the materiality of creation and Christ, in forming us as knowing makers, participating in God’s poiesis in the world. White takes a deep dive in attempting to summarize von Balthasar, Milbank, and Smith yet ably does so, weaving together their ideas with his own vision of a theological aesthetic. Like White, I’ve been captivated by flash mob videos and like him, I long that the church might captivate the world in this way.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher through Speakeasy.… (mere)