AIS: Nature's Beauty.

Catalog description

In his Philosophical Theology, F.R. Tennant insists that, "Nature is sublime or beautiful, and the exceptions do but prove the rule." This course attends to nature's beauty from a diversity of perspectives. Aesthetics, a branch of philosophy, asks: "What is beauty?" Philosophy also wonders why, as in: "Why is there beauty?" The sciences offer a Darwinian theory of beauty, one that reduces our experience to its roles in survival and reproduction. At the same time, the sciences offer a non-reductive role for beauty in theory confirmation. Theologians, on the other hand, insist that the beauty of nature reflects the very nature of God and testifies to God's presence and goodness. Nature's Beauty draws on each of these disciplines in order to understand the place and significance of beauty in the life of the Church.