Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Sacred Is Still Beautiful: The Liturgical and Theological Aesthetics of Pope Benedict XVI

2012; University of St. Thomas; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/log.2013.0004

1533-791X

Roland Millare,

Catholicism and Religious Studies

In his postsynodal apostolic exhortation, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that the is inherently linked to beauty: it is veritatis splendor (35). The veritatis splendor, which the liturgy reveals is Jesus Christ himself, who is the living revelation and icon of the Father's love. Beauty is not merely accidental or ornamental part of the liturgy. Because God himself is unveiled in sacramental form in the celebration of the liturgy, Benedict wrote that beauty is an essential element of the liturgical action (Ibid.). Through man's participation in the Liturgy, he is transfigured in the beauty of Christ so he can transform the culture through a Eucha- ristic life. Beauty is the foundation of the Holy Father's liturgical and eu- charistic theology. Tracey Rowland has argued that the transcen- dental of beauty is one of the central themes and concerns of his pontificate. 1 Genuine and authentic reform of both the liturgy and modern culture can take place through the theological aesthetics that has influenced the thought of Benedict. First, I will present the Holy Father's liturgical aesthetics in relation to the development of the philosophical aesthetics of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the theo-