Customer Reviews

The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth

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It took me several months to finish this book. Hart argues for getting beauty back as a theological category. Reformed and the more intellectually rigorous evangelicals are the ones who will likely read this book. That is good. Those are the ones--and I am reformed--who need to see beauty in theology. Hart uses the latest vocabulary from postmodern philosophy. the reader is urged patience in this regard. The first section of the book (the first 150 or so pages) is incredibly hard to read. Hart assumes that his readers are intimiately familiar with Nietzsche, Derrida, and Levinas. I wasn't.

Hart argues that the Trinity is the answer to the postmodern problem of *differance.* Where postmoderns see the world--and language--as chaotic and violent because of the inherent difference of reality, Hart sees the Trinity as a sublime answer to differance. The Trinity can accommodate differance because the Trinity can posit a reality that is both diversity without confusion, otherness without violence. This is the hardest part of the book. What Hart is saying is that postmoderns--and most Calvinists, ironically--assume that any difference in reality is necessarily violent. Hart shows how the Trinity solves the problem of linguistic violence.

The rest of the book after that is relatively easy to read. Hart divides his book into Trinity-Creation-Salvation-Eschatology categories. This is where his Eastern Orthodoxy is evident and provides a welcome relief to the strictly judicial categories of the West. The section on salvation literally sang! The last 200 pages were a brilliant tour-de-force.

This book has the potential to re-write American theology. It also can unify across confessional lines without watering the unity down into the usual WCC garbage. Let's hope that Hart writes more.

LATER EDIT:
I've re-read this book (and parts of the book several times again). After reading and listening to a lot of Hart, I began to notice that while Hart often makes weighty and learned points and regularly scores on a high level, at other times I think he is simply showing off his erudition. There are some sections in here on St Gregory of Nyssa and Hart's exposition of them, while beautiful, really do not make any sense upon further reflection. I would give some examples but it would make the review unnecessarily long.

I think Hart tries to rescue St Augustine on Absolute Divine Simplicity. It is a brilliant attempt, but I don't think he is successful. Still, the pros of the book outweight the (significant!) cons. It is definitely worth reading due to its importance today.

Post-Post EDIT: A few commenters took umbrage at my criticisms of St August. on simplicity. Whatever. I think I have guessed why so many people have the same reaction to this book (though they differ on whether they like it or not). Hart is interacting with the post-Heideggerian schools of philosophy and their challenges (real or perceived) to the Christian faith. If you are struggling with Heidegger's genealogy of the Western narrative, this book is for you. If you are not, then much of this book won't make sense. I'm actually more favorable to Hart now than I have been in the past; my criticisms still remain, though.

David Bentley Hart's The Beauty of the Infinite is a veritable Tour de Force! Like the the great theological masterpieces of old, Dr. Hart draws his readers into what may be called "The Great Conversation," as he displays an easy familiarity with with Christian writings "ever ancient, ever new." According to Dr. Hart, God the Thrice-Holy Trinity reveals and manifests Himself as the all-transcendent Essence of Beauty, and the infinitely potent Energy through, with, and in Whom all creation -- both visible and invisible -- is made beautiful. My recommendation: buy TWO copies -- one for the shelf, and one to keep always within reach ... this one's a modern classic of metaphysics, philosophical theology, and Christian mysticism.

(It is unfortunate, however, that Amazon.com continues to list the paperback as "out of print," when it clearly IS in print, and moreover, quite available. I got my copy at Newman Bookstore in Washington, DC: (202) 526-1036.)

This book takes on and even takes in to a great extent the work of Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze and many others in the postmodern lineage and compares them to the likes of Gregory of Nyssa and St. Augustine. In doing so, Hart shows what duffers our "postmoderns" are. Revealing a truly gigantic erudition, Hart does what many Christians have wanted for several decades running now. He shows that our great classical tradition doesn't end with "postmodernism" any more than humanity itself ends just because some teenager decides to dress up as a Goth. Humanity may end for that teenager, but it doesn't end the entire human race or the rest of civilization's covenant with the Almighty. Unless you've read this book, you cannot consider yourself to be educated. Unless you've read this book, you might consider the French and German postmoderns to be truly intelligent. They are symptoms of dying societies that have lost touch with the most profound wisdom and substituted for it some paradoxes that can easily sweep up those who are enthusiastic about minor fads because they lack a broader perspective. David Bentley Hart provides a powerful perspective that will allow genuinely erudite people to regain their culture. I am deeply grateful to him.

I know from reviews that this book contains some very important theological ideas that are probably well worth exploring. I also know from his book Atheist Delusions that Hart can write well for the educated general reader. He did not write this book for that audience. Complex ideas are packed in densely with what seems to be little development. Hart assumes the reader already has an extensive background perhaps a doctorate in philosophy or theology. The high(or low) point of this approach are untranslated footnotes in Greek and German. If you are up to that, this is probably an excellent work. If you are not, look elsewhere. I hope Hart has made his important ideas available somewhere in a readable format.

This is a theological aesthetics of the highest order that is also thoroughly enjoyable. Hart displays a mastery of postmodern philosophy, patristic theology, and a general theological acuity that is truly mind-boggling. Yet you find yourself reading it with a quiet smile. While I have slogged my way through it from cover to cover twice, I find it much better read in small "morsels" so that one can savor his insight and rhetorical play in a manner which tantalizes the intellectual palate. It is beautiful, bewildering, inspiring, and intellectually exhausting - and all in a playful way! While at times his rhetoric does come across as somewhat excessive and his provocations brow-raising, one should not forget that the work displays in form what it suggests in content: that Being is itself the rhetorical display of the glorious excess of the Trintiarian life of God. I know that I will return to this work for years to come and will continue to enjoy it heartily, even in its verbosity and ostentatiousness. Consider it an intellectual cathedral which displays a playful grandeur that overwhelms and intices, puzzles and silences. Wander in, and do not hesitate to find yourself lost and enjoying every minute of it!

this work is dense and complex; I'm still hopeful the reward will be commenserate.