David Lyle Jeffrey, FRSC

The Father of Lights

Theology

“In theological aesthetics the lineaments of Thomistic thought have long been most formative, but now, in this rich, closely argued, and admirably synthetic work of theological aesthetics, Junius Johnson has contributed a powerful adequation of St. Bonaventure's conception of beauty--both as gift from the Father of Lights and as illumination leading back to him. Beauty rightly perceived--that is, in a necessarily subjective appropriation of objective reality--enables a fuller understanding of God, in Bonaventure's term a 'contuition.' We are simultaneously dazzled by beauty in the world and by beauty's Giver. Johnson's thoughtful book, conversing as it does with the likes of von Balthasar, Baudrillard, Barthes, and Ouspensky, is brimming with insight, a remarkably fruitful excursus in philosophical theology in which many will find worthy treasures.”