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A Semblance of Things Unseen: Damaged Experience and Aesthetic Recovery in Theodor Adorno and Hans Urs Von Balthasar

Arblaster, Wes J.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9096-1045
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1501088676099751

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, Theology.
Hans Urs von Balthasar and Theodor Adorno are not often mentioned in the same company. While undoubtedly different, I argue that their overarching diagnoses of present phenomenological conditions are strongly corroborative. Both see present experience as damaged and that this damage is manifest in the loss of our recognition of veiled presence, or semblance. This has been made possible by a kind of `forgetting’ not understood in predominantly psychological terms, but historically, witnessed through the emergence of distinctly modern notions of art and aesthetics. Through exploring these connections in relation to their notions of `aura’ and `glory’ I suggest that not only can theology and critical theory be mutually supportive, but that a Christologically-centered theological aesthetics presents possibilities for a critical recovery of genuine experience.
John Inglis (Committee Chair)
Anthony Godzieba (Committee Member)
William Portier (Committee Member)
Kelly Johnson (Committee Member)
Brad Kallenberg (Committee Member)
248 p.
Philosophy; Theology
Adorno, Balthasar, aesthetics; theology; semblance; glory; aura; damaged experience; art; Gestalt; dialectics; critical theory; Benjamin; disenchantment; phenomenology; secularization

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Arblaster, W. J. (2017). A Semblance of Things Unseen: Damaged Experience and Aesthetic Recovery in Theodor Adorno and Hans Urs Von Balthasar [Doctoral dissertation, University of Dayton]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1501088676099751

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Arblaster, Wes. A Semblance of Things Unseen: Damaged Experience and Aesthetic Recovery in Theodor Adorno and Hans Urs Von Balthasar. 2017. University of Dayton, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1501088676099751.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Arblaster, Wes. "A Semblance of Things Unseen: Damaged Experience and Aesthetic Recovery in Theodor Adorno and Hans Urs Von Balthasar." Doctoral dissertation, University of Dayton, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1501088676099751

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by University of Dayton and OhioLINK.