| Summary: | <p>In this thesis I consider the work of Charles Taylor from a theological perspective, specifically relating this consideration to the topic of ecclesiology. I argue that Taylor and related thinkers such as John Milbank and Rowan Williams point toward what I call an “Aesthetic Ecclesiology”, that is an ecclesiology that values highly and utilizes the aesthetic in its self-understanding and practice.</p>
<p>I begin with the observation that Taylor’s work provides an account of the breakdown in Modernity of the conceptual relationship of the immanent and the transcendent. I add to Taylor’s account that of John Milbank and the Radical Orthodoxy movement, arguing that Milbank’s work is largely complementary to Taylor’s, and that, whereas Taylor’s genealogy operates on a largely historico-cultural level, Milbank’s takes account of high-level elite movements within the realms of theology and philosophy. The final chapter utilizes the theology and ecclesiology of Rowan Williams, whose work is seen as, again, complementary to what has gone before, adding to it by providing first-hand priestly and episcopal reflection in addition to an emphasis on the Church as rooted in history and, at points, taken to its limits.</p>
<p>I conclude that certain important ecclesiological implications follow from the observation of the illegitimate breakdown of the conceptual connection of the immanent and the transcendent: firstly, this observation implies that the aesthetic may be a more theologically rich category than it is often given credit for. It is neither an irrelevance nor necessarily idolatrous but can be a legitimate conduit for the presence of the divine. It is argued therefore that the reconnection of the transcendent and the immanent coheres well with an understanding of the Church that takes into account the material reality of the sacraments and the Church’s status as historical, global and eschatological. Secondly, the aesthetic provides the Church with a powerful apologetic: beauty cannot be reduced to the presuppositions of secular materialism, and so must be accounted for by recourse to transcendent categories.</p>
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