Reviews for Let Your Life Speak: Politics, Religion, and Antinuclear Weapons Activism

The average rating for Let Your Life Speak: Politics, Religion, and Antinuclear Weapons Activism based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-03-25 00:00:00 Pauline Etchells Such a promising book title and subject that pleads for renewed consideration in our day. The relation of art to theology promises fruitful meditation based on the Psalmist’s imperative in Psalm 29:2 to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” (alternately translated ‘splendor of holiness’ with reference to holy array or festival attire in which Titus 2:10 exhortation to ‘adorn the doctrine of God’ may allude to – *hat tip to Joseph Bailey sermon, Monroe, LA, January 31, 2016) Thus, the author ventures to study “the relation of art to religion when these are analyzed in the terms of the categorical concepts of beauty and holiness.” Art having to do with beauty, and religion with holiness; both subjects and concepts having a long history in philosophy, James Alfred Martin, Jr., provides an extensive historical analysis of representative philosophical thinking, starting with the Bible and proceeding chronologically through the late twentieth century. The views of the relation of aesthetics to religion is presented in both Western and Eastern traditions. Particularly good were Martin’s sections on Augustine, Aquinas, Jonathan Edwards, and Schelling. Disappointing was the minimal treatment given to Vico and Croce. Here are some excellent quotes from the historical part: “The criteriological category for artistic excellence, as for all excellence, is beauty. Thomas, like Aristotle, Augustine, and Plato, does not employ the term ‘beauty’ as applying exclusively to what would later be called ‘purely aesthetic’ goods. With respect to all excellence, beauty is understood in terms of its effects, ‘that which, being seen, pleases’ (Id quod visum placet, Summa Theologica I, 5,4 ad.1). Understood in terms of its essence it is characterized by the three elements enunciated by Aristotle: integrity, proportion, and clarity.” “The controlling term for conceptual expression of the divine sovereignty and glory was, for Edwards, not goodness or righteousness but beauty. His ‘aesthetic realism’ in epistemology and ethics led naturally to the favored employment of an aesthetic term in speaking of the Divine.” By employing the relation of aesthetic to religious sensibility as a gauge, Martin analyzes philosophical writings throughout the centuries; by which, the reader obtains, by another route, a good grasp of the range of philosophy in history. (Peter Leithart does the same in his treatment of gratitude in Gratitude: An Intellectual History) Sadly, the interpretation of what is art, and what is religion was disappointing, taking a pluralistic and multi-cultural stance and proposing what the author coined a “dialogic neo-pragmatic” approach to assessing art and religion. Being decidedly Augustinian in my approach to cultures, of which art and religion are major components, I see the critical importance and unity of an objective, revealed truth, goodness, and beauty. Just as separating philosophy from theology led to modernism, so divorcing aesthetics from orthodox theology leads to idolatry. Though I disagree with the conclusions of this book, I, nevertheless, learned much from it. [Note: Mentioned in the book in a section on ‘glory’ was a promising subject for further study: the ‘aesthetic theology’ of Hans Urs von Balthasar.]

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-09 00:00:00 Patrick Cammisuli Would work better as essay. The basic theme is fine except the book just goes on and on - fluffed up essay