Is God Invisible? An Essay on Religion and Aesthetics Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society Series

In this volume, Charles Taliaferro and Jil Evans promote aesthetic personalism by examining three domains of aesthetics - the philosophy of beauty, aesthetic experience, and philosophy of art - through the lens of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, theistic Hinduism, and the all-seeing Compassionate Buddha. These religious traditions assume an inclusive, overarching God's eye, or ideal point of view, that can create an emancipatory appreciation of beauty and goodness. This appreciation also recognizes the reality and value of the aesthetic experience of persons and deepens the experience of art works. The authors also explore and contrast the invisibility of persons and God. The belief that God or the sacred is invisible does not mean God or the sacred cannot be experienced through visual and other sensory or unique modes. Conversely, the assumption that human persons are thoroughly visible, or observable in all respects, ignores how racism and other forms of bias render persons invisible to others.

Introduction: The View from Everywhere; 1. Aesthetic Personalism; 2. Is God Invisible?; 3. The Gates of Perception; 4. The Perception of Gates; 5. The Beautiful Gate; 6. Revealing and Concealing; 7. Public Perception of Religious and Art Objects; 8. A Personal Guide to the Aesthetic Experience of Works of Art; Epilogue.

Charles Taliaferro is Professor of Philosophy and the Oscar and Gertrude Boe Distinguished Chair, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN USA.
Jil Evans is an American painter and author, and member of the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art cooperative in Minneapolis, Minnesota.