The Beauty of the Lord: Theology as Aesthetics (Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology)

Academic and thorough. Scripturally based and thoughtful. An excellent examination of the attritbutes if God.

This book by Jonathan King is part of Lexham Press’s Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology series. It’s the first volume in the series that I’ve encountered and I was impressed. It’s described as a “peer-reviewed series of contemporary monographs” that cover a wide array of subjects. This volume on the beauty of the Lord sheds light on so many places for me. The advertising blurb on the back cover (“restores aesthetics as not merely a valid lens for theological reflection, but an essential one”) doesn’t really capture what this book has to offer. It’s not so much a book about aesthetics as much it is one that exalts the beauty of the Lord as an overarching pedestal to understand the big picture of God’s word.The book is well-written, deeply researched, and successful at probing what has been believed. The author never fears to cogently argue his case either. If you’re like me, you may find him easy to agree with whether it’s a topic you’ve deeply studied in the past or not.The introduction is successful in establishing the goals of this book. By the end of it, there’s a good synopsis of every chapter. The chapter on beauty Triune is especially helpful if you are like me and have not spent a lot of time on the subject before. You will see how this subject ties into the doctrine of God, including His attributes, as well as its connection to the Trinity. I’ve been studying the Trinity lately and found some good information here.The next chapter approaches creation as beauty’s debut. There’s more excellent theology here, particularly as the glory of the image of God in humans is discussed. The chapter on the incarnation sees it as beauty condescending. Just like its subject, this book is beautiful as it discusses the cross as beauty redeeming. Our salvation comes into view in the chapter on re-creation as beauty’s dénouement. The conclusion ties all these wonderful aspects together and proves the author’s thesis of the importance of the beauty of the Lord and give something of a systematic theology with palpable aesthetic value. There’s a lengthy bibliography as well if you want to look into further study.There are some quality theological works being written these days and this book is one of them. Mark it down as a great success!I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

"The Beauty of the Lord" is one of the best and most edifying works I've read this entire year. There are glorious insights of systematic and biblical theology found on nearly every page.The author's aim is "to explore and develop a theology of beauty based on God’s plan in Christ. Thus the nature of beauty, as defined by the divine economy of redemption, which sums all things up in Jesus Christ (Eph 1:10), is pursued in a specifically biblical and systematic way from beginning to end." (1)King makes a compelling case both from biblical evidence and theological warrant that beauty properly should be considered a perfection of the divine nature. The author draws together bright threads of beauty from Scripture and from the writings of Irenaeus, Augustine, Calvin, Balthasar, Bavinck, Edwards, and others, to fashion a glorious theodramatic tapestry of redemption.If you read this book carefully and prayerfully, I trust that your eyes too will behold the King in His beauty (Isaiah 33:17).

Jonathan King has a Ph.D. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and lectures at the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the Universitas Pelita Harapan in Indonesia.This book is about how beauty relates to Christian doctrines, including the divine nature, creation, the incarnation, the cross, and eschatological recreation. King brings into the discussion such theological luminaries as Irenaeus of Lyons, Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, Herman Bavinck, Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Jonathan Edwards.This review is subjective. All reviews are, of course, but this one is especially subjective because I recognize that others may read it and have a different impression.Overall, I thought that the book contained a lot of basic Christian concepts that I have encountered before, albeit couched in academic language. Christ is the creator of beauty and recreates people as beautiful. Penal substitution. Christ manifests glory as the incarnate one, even when he was not transfigured. The usual debates about what the divine image is: the human role as God’s representative, some characteristic of humans, etc.? I do not want to convey that I lack appreciation for these concepts. Perhaps showing rather than telling may have enhanced these concepts, as far as the book goes.Although I was not floored by any of the book’s insights, it did contain some interesting discussions. Can God be simple and have attributes? Do humans still possess the divine image when they are in hell? How the eschatological recreation is indeed recreation but does not exactly destroy the old creation. The concept of the divinization of humans, as they see God through God in the eschaton, was a helpful way to conceptualize how Christians will know God. The contrast between a soulish body and a spiritual body was also fairly effectively fleshed out. The discussion of beauty was abstract but was deep: what is beauty, and how do we identify the beautiful?This book was not entirely my cup of tea, but it had some good things.I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My review is honest.

Jonathan King has penned a wonderful work that focuses the readers eyes on the beauty of the Lord. Working through the Scriptures, he entreats us to see how the beauty of the Lord is a theme throughout the Bible and, it could be argued, is in fact an attribute of God. I especially enjoyed his treatment of the Trinity throughout, as well as the beauty of Christ in his life, death, and resurrection.The one thing to be ready for with Beauty of the Lord is to have your Bible opened and some good time set aside. The book took me a good amount of time to read, but I also walked away with a better grasp of the enjoyment and call to “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4).