Beauty Reminding Us of the Lost Paradise or of the Kingdom to Come?

Abstract

Based on a paper given at a conference, this article seeks to go beyond a mere recounting of leading theologians’ writings on beauty and aesthetics. Rather it focuses onan exploration of where most people concrete instances of beauty in our world that may remind them/us of both the lost paradise and of the kingdom of God. The paper asks whether beauty reminds us of a lost paradise, a beauty to which we desire to return, or of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of justice, peace and goodness, to which we are inexorably drawn. It suggests that beauty pertains to both paradise and the kingdom of God, not least as they are not entirely separate entities but are linked with one another.