The Biblical Foundations of Medieval Aesthetics

The present study examines the biblical foundations that undergirded medieval aesthetic theory and practice from roughly the fifth through the fourteenth centuries, tracing how exegetes, theologians, artists, and theorists discovered within the pages of the Old and New Testaments not merely incidental comments about beauty but rather a comprehensive vision of aesthetic order, purpose, and meaning. Unlike modern aesthetics, which typically finds its origins in eighteenth-century philosophical inquiry and which maintains a studied autonomy from religious commitments, medieval reflection on beauty remained inextricably bound to theological concerns and to the interpretation of scripture. To understand medieval aesthetics, therefore, requires understanding how medieval readers approached the biblical text as a source of wisdom about the nature and purpose of beautiful things in the created order and in human making.