For a theology of beauty
Article summary proposed by the Contacts review with LLM assistance
This article by Olivier Clément offers a theological reflection on beauty in the tradition of Eastern Christianity. In the form of a doctrinal meditation grounded in patristic sources, the author develops the idea that beauty constitutes a true divine name, rooted in Trinitarian communion and radiating across all of creation. Drawing on Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, Irenaeus of Lyon, and Gregory Palamas, as well as Russian thinkers such as Berdyaev and Dostoevsky, Clément shows that beauty is not an isolated aesthetic category, but the expression of divine glory permeating the cosmos, history, and the human person. The Incarnation and Transfiguration of Christ constitute the decisive moment in which beauty, rendered ambiguous by the fall, is restored in its ontological truth, opening the way to a theology of the icon as a place of revelation of eschatological beauty.
This article has not been translated yet — it is available in its French version here.
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