What Does Beauty Have to Do With the Trinity?: From Augustine to Duns Scotus

What does Beauty have to doWith the trinity?From augustine to duns scotus This paper will address a very specific task.Throughout the centuries theologians referred to the "beauty" of the Trinity or its specific persons.What exactly is the meaning of the word "beauty" in this case and can one speak of the "aesthetics" of the Trinity?The question will be treated historically, using material from Augustine, Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus.Augustine is certainly the greatest of Christian aestheticians. 1 Bonaventure represents the thirteenth-century Franciscan tradition that is both interested in aesthetic matters and is Augustinian in nature. 2 Duns Scotus is also supportive of both the Augustinian and the Bonaventurian traditions, and has, perhaps, the most developed and profound analysis of the Trinity in medieval thought. 3 The paper will use the approach that von Balthasar dubbed "theological aesthetics," as opposed to "aesthetic theology." 4This means that the analysis will start not with aesthetic or artistic experience used for theological purposes, but with systematic theology proper, and show how certain aesthetic issues naturally come out of certain theological 1 Cf.for example R.