A Relational Aesthetic: Toward a Theory of the Arts in Christian Ministry

Dissertation, Boston University School of Theology (1990)
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Abstract

The dissertation proposes "A Relational Aesthetic" that is shown to serve the practice of Church art. The aesthetic is derived from the insights of relational metaphysics, which establishes an ontology describing relations , which are Pure Activity, Pure Experience, to be fundamental and thus, real. In contrast to relations , internal polar perspectives from relations are co-emergent, derivative abstractions. The relational aesthetic contends that the metaphysical fundamental of art, per se, is immediate aesthetic experiencing. Co-emergents from immediate aesthetic experiencing, e.g., artists, artworks, performers, audiences, etc., are identified as perspectival derivatives. ;Art and craft are differentiated as two types of aesthetic activity. Aesthetic activity in its artistic dimensions, being identified as immediate artistic experiencing and having no conceptual aims, generally frames the parameters of aesthetic experience. Aesthetic activity in its craftistic dimensions through its conceptual aims more narrowly frames the parameters of aesthetic experiences. Certain aesthetic occasions have both artistic and craftistic function, i.e., both "pure" experiential as well as conceptual dimensions. ;Because aesthetic occasions can have both artistic and craftistic functions, the degree to which aesthetic events artistically and/or craftistically are created, rendered, or interpreted must be taken into consideration. For Christian ministry in the arts, priority is assigned to artistic experiencing for two reasons. First, artistic experiencing and religious experiencing share an ontological identity in Pure Experience. As such, both types of experiencing share the common function of fostering creativity, albeit with no conceptual aims. Second, in accord with the first, although both Church art and religious occasions can effectively serve both didactic and epistemological objectives, from an artistic perspective, both must be allowed to "work as they will" within individuals and communities of faith. The rationale for this claim is that both artistic and religious experiencing have generative properties that admit and encourage an individual personally to participate in determining what both types of occasions in fact are and how they will impact on the individual both within and beyond the scope of aesthetic occasions

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