Theodulf of Orléans’ Ecclesial Beauty

• Autores: Gabriel Toretta
• Localización: Sacris erudiri, ISSN 0771-7776, Nº. 60, 2021, págs. 279-318
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Theodulf of Orléans’ first major work for the Carolingian court, the Opus Caroli regis (790-793), employs a vast arsenal of authorities, themes, and theological subjects in order to refute what he sees as the grave errors of both Nicaea II (787) and Hiereia (754). Theodulf ’s work has been studied from various perspectives as a Western engagement with the eighth/ninth century Bilderstreit, but one constant theme of the book has gone unexplored: beauty. In this article, I examine the many different contexts in which Theodulf talks about beauty, from the beginning of the Opus until just before its end. Although Theodulf never directly thematizes beauty, the Opus evinces a consistent concept of beauty, considered in relation to God, the Church, human behavior, and works of physical art. The Opus presents an ecclesial vision of beauty, in which humanity receives beauty as a gift from the Trinity, given through the Incarnation and the Church that is built and beautified by Christ’s blood. Life in the Church leads a person to be conformed to Christ already on earth, in preparation for the perfect heavenly beauty of seeing God as he is. In interior faith and external works, the Church and her members manifest the beauty they have received from Christ’s spiritual virtues. Thus for Theodulf, the Church’s beauty is neither a purely spiritual nor a purely physical reality: it is incarnational. This incarnate, ecclesial vision of beauty provides a consistent, conceptual ground for Theodulf ’s via media on images, in which he argues that manufactured beauty can be useful for Christians as a means of enacting right belief and right worship. Perceptible beauties add nothing to the glory of God, but used rightly they can both reveal and encourage the Church’s life of right belief and right worship, directed to the beauty of heaven.