Divine Generosity and Human Creativity ─ Theology Through Symbol, Painting and Architecture

David Brown is recognized worldwide as one of the leading British philosophical theologians. His recent work has turned to the arts, exploring theology in a wide range of human experience. This book presents a wide-ranging selection of re-edited essays by David Brown, with new introductions and concluding chapters by the author together with editorial orientation and introduction by the co-editors Christopher Brewer and Robert MacSwain. Over and against theologians who advocate an instrumental rationality, Brown argues for divine generosity rooted in an Incarnational logic. Less concerned with a theology of the arts, Brown instead seeks to explore theology in the arts. God is everywhere available, says Brown, and so artists might be theologians even if not Christian. Brown seeks to push logic via a broad sacramentality in an effort to reclaim human experience. This book presents four parts addressing the following themes: 1) Foundations, 2) The Power of Symbols, 3) Artists as Theologians, and 4) Meaning in Religious Architecture. In addition to encouraging dialogue between theology and the arts, Brown’s discussion draws upon his earlier work in philosophical theology.

David Brown is Emeritus Professor in the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews.Ever since the publication of The Divine Trinity in 1985, he has been recognized as one of the leading philosophical theologians of Great Britain and an important international voice in the conversation between philosophy and theology. He is a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church, a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a previous President of the Society for the Study of Theology.

Christopher R. Brewer is Manager of Church Partner Development at The Colossian Forum on Faith, Science and Culture in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, and Visiting Scholar at Calvin College. He is the editor of Art that Tells the Story.

Robert MacSwain is Associate Professor of Theology at the School of Theology of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, USA. The author of Solved by Sacrifice: Austin Farrer, Fideism, and the Evidence of Faith, he has edited or co-edited five other volumes, including Theology, Aesthetics, and Culture: Responses to the Work of David Brown.