Science and Religion Being Moved by Aesthetics

Abstract

The science-religion dialogue is interdisciplinary and recent years we see scholars emphasizing aesthetics as yet another aspect in the dialogue. Aesthetics, already included in some theological discourses such as theological aesthetics, covers a number of perspectives and sub-disciplines. This article sheds light on how aesthetics contributes to the development of the dialogue. Alejandro Garcia-Rivera is an important contributor to the debate, by addressing aesthetics as an additional element in this interdisciplinary dialogue between natural science and theology. The first part describes his interdisciplinary method, while the second concerns the relevance of aesthetics to the dialogue, where beauty in nature is central. In the third part some critical constructive remarks are raised on the understanding of beauty in nature. Garcia-Rivera’s approach is important and relevant, although his concept of beauty in nature is too narrow. To develop a more profound dialogue between aesthetics, natural science, and theology, we need to expand the concept of beauty in nature and include the phenomena of the sublime and wonder.