The orans, although a gesture with a long ‘pagan’ past, was easily adopted by Christians for its symbolic meanings of prayer and piety and quickly attained a number of other more nuanced meanings as it was refined and reused. By restricting the scope of this thesis to the orans in the Christian catacombs of Rome, it becomes possible to approach the figure from a multi-directional perspective, not merely concerned with what the gesture meant to the Christian, but with its literary and material pedigrees, its transition to Christian art, and its cultural significance. To this end, chapter one examines ‘pagan’ precursors of the Christian orans through an examination of coins, sculptures, inscriptions, and reliefs, as well as by looking at the two figures whose appearance most influences that of the orans – the goddess Pietas, and the Artemisia-Adorans funerary portrait type. Chapter two addresses the importance of the orans in the Christian literary community, and examines not only the actual usage of prayer with raised hands by the Christian faithful, but also examines the aesthetic and theological reasons for the popularity of the gesture – the parallel between the spread arms of the orans and the posture of the crucified Christ. Finally, chapter three presents a spatial-thematic analysis of the usage of the orans in the Roman Christian catacombs, using a corpus of 158 orantes. This chapter enables the reader to draw conclusions about the veracity of the academic theories presented in the previous chapters, as it compares the usage of the orans against its scholarly interpretation.

I denna uppsats studeras den romersk-katolska teologen Hans Urs von Balthasars teologiska estetik. Mer specifikt utgör uppsatsen en analys av von Balthasars konceptualisering av skönhet, och hur denna förståelse av skönhet kan användas för att teologiskt belysa frågor som berör konst och estetiska uttryck. Detta görs i uppsatsen genom att ställa de teorier om inkarnationen, Kristi gestalt och skönhet som von Balthasar presenterar i bokserien The Glory of the Lord sida vid sida med den engelska konstkritikern Peter Fullers sekulära estetik. Målet med detta är att skapa en dialog mellan Fullers problematisering av modern sekulär estetik och von Balthasars teologiska förståelse av skönhet, uttryck och upplevelse. Båda Fullers sekuläraperspektiv och von Balthasars teologiska ingångspunkt behövs i denna studie, mycket eftersom von Balthasar sällan skrev om de sköna konsterna, vilket Fuller gör. Härigenom blir Fullers kritik av samtida konst och estetik relevant eftersom han skapar ett ramverk som kan nyttjas för att testa om von Balthasars teologiska estetik kan användas för att belysa de frågeställningar Fuller försöker besvara. Det är möjligt att se detta som att Fuller ställer frågorna medan von Balthasar ger ett teologiskt svar. Analysen utgör en rörelse från frågor som berör skönhet och dess grund, via en analys av upplevelsen av skönhet, till ett utforskande av hur von Balthasars teologisk estetik kan läggam grunden för en teologisk förståelse av konstnärliga uttryck. Därmed utgör en större del av uppsatsen en analys av det teoretiska ramverket som, åtminstone spekulativt, kan sägas möjliggöra användningen av von Balthasars teologiska idéer i en estetisk kontext som fokuserarpå konst. Anledningen till detta är enkel, i och med att von Balthasar skrivit så lite om konst behöver de relevanta delarna av hans teologiska estetik lyftas fram och placeras i en ny kontext, härigenom blir Fuller relevant för studien. Eftersom Fuller söker ett sekulärt svar på hur vi bör förstå konst i en ”postkristen” tid lyfter han fram frågor som kan besvaras teologiskt, vilket möjliggör en dialog mellan Fullers problematisering av samtidiga konst och von Balthasars konceptualisering av skönhet. Resultatet av denna dialog är att von Balthasars fokus på skönhetens relationalitet och okontrollerbarhet kan belysa de problem som uppstår när Fuller försöker skapa ett sekulärt estetiskt ramverk förankrat i metafysiska tankegångar. I uppsatsens slutsats presenteras två teoretiska resultat. Det första är en form av kritik av den sekulära estetiken och dess avsaknad av metafysisk grund, vilket tenderar att göra frågan om vad skönhet är till en fråga om individuell eller kollektiv smak. Det andra resultatet är att von Balthasars teologiska estetik bygger på en förståelse av inkarnationen där ”jag-Du”relationalitet spelar en viktig roll. Därmed är det möjligt att argumentera för att samspelet mellan ett ”jag” och ett ”Du” uppvisar potential som teoretisk grund för att utvidga användningen av balthasarisk teologisk estetik. Detta skulle emellertid kräva att von Balthasars teologiska estetik kopplas bort från von Balthasars egna kulturella och estetiska preferenser, detta med anledning av hans konservativa syn på konst försvårar dialogen med kontemporär konst och estetik. Denna separation mellan von Balthasars teologi och smak är dock möjlig på grund av att von Balthasar, åtminstone i bokserien The Glory of the Lord, sällan berör frågan om konst.

If from God’s perspective ‘all the world’s a stage’, theology invites one to think and act according to the view afforded from this height. To speak theologically of a ‘world stage’ as many contemporary theologians have done has required rethinking the Church’s long-established antagonism towards the stage. Of late, theology has opened up academic exchange with the drama’s understanding of ‘the great theatre of the world’. Hans Urs von Balthasar’s theo-drama in particular has given Christians a means for entering into discussion with dramatic forms. Contemporary theological engagements with ‘drama’, however, have been limited to its most literary/metaphorical aspects; less attention has been paid to the potentialities in theology’s exchange with the performance aesthetics of live theatre. Pressed to its logical ends, however, von Balthasar’s idea of a ‘theological dramatics’ and its advances made in contemporary theology, suggest the need for sustained engagement with other modes of dramaturgy, including performance theory and the stage. This thesis attempts to instantiate this theological engagement through the aesthetics of theatrical performance.

Within the field of theological aesthetics, this project assesses the divide between theological accounts of art and the re-emergence of religious imagery in modern and contemporary art. More specifically, American Protestant theologians and their accounts of visual art will be taken up as a representative set of contemporary theological inquiry in the arts. Under this category, evaluation will be made of three diverse traditions in American Protestant thought: Paul Tillich and Liberal Protestantism, Francis Schaeffer and the Neo-Calvinists, and the open evangelical accounts of Nicholas Wolterstorff and William Dyrness. With respect to modern and contemporary visual art, this evaluation judges the degree to which theologians have understood the primary concepts and dominant narratives of various modernisms and postmodernisms of art since the end of the nineteenth century, recognised the watershed moments in the lineage of the twentieth century avant-garde, and acknowledged the influence of critical theory not only upon the contemporary discourse in aesthetics and art production but also in the social reception of art. In tracing the re-emergence of religious imagery in modern and contemporary art, this project takes up three diverse traditions: the Crucifixions of Francis Bacon and the memento mori art of Damien Hirst, the ‘re-enchantment’ of art in the work of Joseph Beuys, and the art of ‘False Blasphemy’ associated with lapsed Catholics like Rober Gober and Andres Serrano. By assessing what theologians have written concerning visual art and the surprising return of certain religious imagery in modern and contemporary art, this study will intimate a new way forward in a mutually beneficial dialogue for art and religious belief.

<p>This thesis is structured in six chapters. Chapter I contains an introduction and includes purpose, theory, method, and concepts. The main purpose, as depicted by the title, is to examine the roots of Swedish ideology concerning what today is generally named design, as embodied in the concept of more beautiful or better things for everyday life (in Swedish: ”vackrare vardagsvara”).</p><p>Chapter II contains a background and includes philosophical ideas and aesthetic movements in Europe which have influenced the Swedish Society of Arts and Crafts (in Swedish ”Svenska Slöjdföreningen”, abbreviated SSF) which was later renamed the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design (in Swedish: ”Föreningen Svensk Form”). It considers these activities: the Arts and Crafts movement in England, the Swedish national romantic movement, Deutscher Werkbund in Germany, and Swedish moulders of public opinion and new ideas, like Ellen Key, Carl Larsson and Gregor Paulsson.</p><p>Chapter III is an ideological biography of Gregor Paulsson. The chapter deals with biographical data and ideological development, and the social aesthetical texts which were important in his activity in the National Museum and as director of The Swedish Society of Arts and Crafts. Gregor Paulsson is considered mainly in his role as social aesthetical propagandist and museologist.</p><p>Chapter IV concerns the early history and activities of the Swedish Society of Arts and Crafts seen as an introduction to the Baltic Exhibition 1914, and the subsequent schism which eventually led to its reorganization and a new ideological orientation. Its activities were directed towards increased cooperation between artists and industry, and a special department was established as an employment office for companies and designers under the management of the textile artist Elsa Gullberg. This chapter also includes a brief portrait of key persons in the Society.</p><p>Chapter V is a study in several sections of the articles for everyday use seen in industrial practice, with Gustavsberg’s china factory and Orrefors’ glassworks as two separate historical studies. The 1917 Home Exhibition is surveyed as an example of the educational ambitions in the development of people’s taste. The focus of the chapter, however, is the international industrial art exhibition in Paris 1925, Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, and the debate about it in the Swedish and French press.</p><p>Chapter VI consists of a concluding discussion with a final epilogue. It contains suggested questions for future research including relations between design and ethics.</p>

This thesis is structured in six chapters. Chapter I contains an introduction and includes purpose, theory, method, and concepts. The main purpose, as depicted by the title, is to examine the roots of Swedish ideology concerning what today is generally named design, as embodied in the concept of more beautiful or better things for everyday life (in Swedish: ”vackrare vardagsvara”). Chapter II contains a background and includes philosophical ideas and aesthetic movements in Europe which have influenced the Swedish Society of Arts and Crafts (in Swedish ”Svenska Slöjdföreningen”, abbreviated SSF) which was later renamed the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design (in Swedish: ”Föreningen Svensk Form”). It considers these activities: the Arts and Crafts movement in England, the Swedish national romantic movement, Deutscher Werkbund in Germany, and Swedish moulders of public opinion and new ideas, like Ellen Key, Carl Larsson and Gregor Paulsson. Chapter III is an ideological biography of Gregor Paulsson. The chapter deals with biographical data and ideological development, and the social aesthetical texts which were important in his activity in the National Museum and as director of The Swedish Society of Arts and Crafts. Gregor Paulsson is considered mainly in his role as social aesthetical propagandist and museologist. Chapter IV concerns the early history and activities of the Swedish Society of Arts and Crafts seen as an introduction to the Baltic Exhibition 1914, and the subsequent schism which eventually led to its reorganization and a new ideological orientation. Its activities were directed towards increased cooperation between artists and industry, and a special department was established as an employment office for companies and designers under the management of the textile artist Elsa Gullberg. This chapter also includes a brief portrait of key persons in the Society. Chapter V is a study in several sections of the articles for everyday use seen in industrial practice, with Gustavsberg’s china factory and Orrefors’ glassworks as two separate historical studies. The 1917 Home Exhibition is surveyed as an example of the educational ambitions in the development of people’s taste. The focus of the chapter, however, is the international industrial art exhibition in Paris 1925, Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, and the debate about it in the Swedish and French press. Chapter VI consists of a concluding discussion with a final epilogue. It contains suggested questions for future research including relations between design and ethics.