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Towards a Contemporary Lutheran Aesthetics of Discipleship Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Concordia Seminary Scholarship 12-1-2018 The Eclipse of Elegance: Towards a Contemporary Lutheran Aesthetics of Discipleship Andrew Whaley Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/phd Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Whaley, Andrew, "The Eclipse of Elegance: Towards a Contemporary Lutheran Aesthetics of Discipleship" (2018). Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation. 63. https://scholar.csl.edu/phd/63 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia Seminary Scholarship at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ECLIPSE OF ELEGANCE: TOWARDS A CONTEMPORARY LUTHERAN AESTHETICS OF DISCIPLESHIP A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Department of Systematic Theology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Andrew D. Whaley December, 2018 Approved by: Dr. Joel Biermann Dissertation Advisor Dr. Charles Arand Reader Dr. David Schmitt Reader © 2018 by Andrew D. Whaley. All rights reserved. ii To Jenna, Sam, and Kate: For all that jazz! iii “What we play is life.” Louis Armstrong iv CONTENTS PREFACE.............................................................................................................................. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... x ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ONE ....................................................................................................................... 1 AESTHETIC FORMATION AND EVERYDAY LIFE ................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................ 1 WILLIAM DYRNESS’S APPROACH TO POETIC THEOLOGY ................................. 20 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 32 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................... 34 THE POSTLIBERAL CRITIQUE OF MODERN EPISTEMOLOGY ............................ 34 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE POSTLIBERAL MOVEMENT .......................... 34 THE POSTLIBERAL ASSESSMENT OF LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE EXTREMES .................................................................................................................. 40 ELLEN CHARRY: A MODEL OF GOOD PRACTICE................................................. 49 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 52 CHAPTER THREE................................................................................................................. 55 ENGAGING A NON-FOUNDATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF ART .............................. 55 SITUATING SUSANNE K. LANGER’S AESTHETICS ............................................... 59 SUSANNE K. LANGER: A BRIEF BIO ....................................................................... 66 ENGAGING PHILOSOPHY IN A NEW KEY ................................................................. 68 FOCUSING IN ON FEELING AND FORM ................................................................... 74 THE VITAL IMPORT OF LANGER’S NON-FOUNDATIONAL MAP ....................... 78 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 79 v CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................... 81 CONSTRUCTING A CONTEMPORARY LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................................................. 81 ATTENDING TO A CONTEMPORARY LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL APPROACH83 ATTENDING TO CONTEMPORARY LUTHERAN ETHICAL REFLECTION .......... 88 MAKING THE CONNECTION TO AESTHETICS ...................................................... 97 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 104 CHAPTER FIVE .................................................................................................................. 107 SEARCHING FOR A CANTUS FIRMUS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ... 107 THREE EXAMPLES OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY THEOLOGICAL AESTHETICS108 DIETRICH BONHOEFFER: A MODEL OF GOOD PRACTICE ................................ 111 LANGER ON METAPHOR AND SYMBOLIC TRANSFORMATION ...................... 125 ROBERT GELINAS AND A JAZZ-SHAPED FAITH................................................. 134 JAZZ: AN ARTISTIC SYMBOL OF VITAL IMPORT ............................................... 137 Swing .................................................................................................................. 138 The Blues ............................................................................................................ 144 Improvisation ...................................................................................................... 155 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 169 CHAPTER SIX ..................................................................................................................... 172 THE POETICS OF PROVIDENCE ............................................................................. 172 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 172 DIETRICH BONHOEFFER: AESTHETICS AND SERVANT LEADERSHIP ........... 177 A RULED-USE APPROACH TO A CONTEMPORARY LUTHERAN AESTHETICS OF DISCIPLESHIP ........................................................................................................... 185 vi The Beauty of the Vita Passiva: Oratio, Meditation, Tentatio .............................. 185 The Beauty of the Vita Activa: God’s Providence and Creative Vocation ............. 195 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 206 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 215 VITA .................................................................................................................................... 224 vii PREFACE This project began many years ago with a personal search to understand, and articulate the aesthetic experiences and discoveries that had taken place in the midst of my everyday life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Thus, it was born out of a desire to express aesthetically and therefore more artistically the reality of the ups and downs, highs and lows, hosannas and hallelujahs, of a life lived in faith, that this project has come to fruition. In 2006 my wife Jenna and I had our first child—our daughter Kate. In the early stages of pregnancy, Kate was diagnosed with down-syndrome and some of the significant physical challenges that can come along with it. We knew she had a tough road ahead. So, as we had planned, just a few minutes after she was born, Kate was baptized right there in the delivery room surrounded by doctors, nurses, and grandparents. A few days later, Kate had open-heart surgery. Unfortunately, it was only a couple of days after her surgery that serious complications ensued during her recovery. A few weeks later, on a rainy Sunday morning in March, our beautiful little girl passed away in her baptismal faith as we prayed the Lord’s Prayer over her. It is truly difficult to find the words to express the great impact this loss had on my wife Jenna and me—especially on our faith life. Never before had we felt the pain and brokenness of this life so deeply. And, never before had we experienced the beauty of God’s life-giving grace so intimately. Our understanding, experience, and feeling of baptism, faith, and of daily discipleship was deepened and broadened. Life became both more tragic and more beautiful. We learned to cry louder, and laugh harder. We learned to sing out with all our heart, soul, and strength both the lament of our deepest hosannas as well as the joy and celebration of our highest hallelujahs. It was during the initial time of mourning the loss of Kate that I spent many hours listening to jazz and the gospel blues of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and others. Thus, it was through music, as I viii was mourning the loss of my daughter, that I was brought to the initial steps of learning how to see, hear, feel and express the juxtaposition of beauty in the brokenness—how to desperately cry out the minor notes of anger, loss, and confusion—and yet with the major notes of faith, hope, and love still echoing throughout the melody of my life. Through a deep and intimate connection with this music I began the journey of coming to a greater understanding and appreciation of the aesthetic aspects of discipleship. One that called for artistic sensibilities that
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