Offensive, Foolish, and Beautiful: The Subversive Christ as a Model for Theological Aesthetics

In searching for a theological foundation for a Christian aesthetic, theologians have looked to creation theology, the incarnation, or eschatology to support Christian theories of beauty and art. This project seeks to provide Christological foundation for theological aesthetics, and in particular, it seeks to construct a model of Christological aesthetics of subversion. This model will root theological aesthetics in the subversive life, death, and ministry of Christ. It will do so first, by uncovering the essential criteria of Christological subversion, thereby defining subversion through Christ’s actions. Second, by highlighting existing subversive elements within the work of theologians who have written about aesthetics. Together, this research will combine to form a model of a Christological aesthetic of subversion, which will then be placed in dialogue with various works of art in order to determine its viability and worth.