(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Havenga, Marthinus Johannes; Vosloo, Robert; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to investigate if American Orthodox theologian David
Bentley Hart's use of the classical Thomistic principle of the analogia entis (in his
monograph The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth), can be
deemed to be a valid, responsible and beneficial manner of affirming a continuity
between the beauty of God and the beauty of creation, and opposing the
seemingly problematic worldview of dualism.
After reviewing a selection of works in the field of theological aesthetics, this study
is conducted both as a historical analysis and a systematic exposition on the
analogia entis, by critically examining the use (and critique) of analogy and the
analogy of being in Greek (Aristotle), Scholastic (Thomas Aquinas) and 20th
century thought (Erich Przywara, Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar), before
inspecting and ultimately affirming David Bentley Hart’s own use thereof (in
regards to the beauty of God and the beauty of creation).