On Augustine's Theological Aesthetics

St.Augustine(354-430), was an outstanding Godfather and Christianity theologist in the Middle Ages. In Christianity belief, he took in the rational tradition from Ancient Greece and Rome and religional culture from Hebrew. As a result, Augustine constituted characteristic Christianity theological philosophy and became an expert of"patristic philosophy". Besides, Augustine was also a aesthetician who had distinct background. Based on the persisting in Neo-Platonism study and Christian faith, Augustine discussed the beauty and the art profoundly. Augustine attributed noumenon of beauty to God, which provided a divine dimension and metaphysical questioning and provided us a new horizon on studying and thinking about beauty.Thus, divine beauty which respected the spirit and soul not only provides an alternative thinking perspective for difficulties and solutions of modern Aesthetics, but also offers an important theoretical resource for construction of Aesthetics.The discussion on his aesthetic thought is the first step into the medieval aesthetics. Based on Augustine's unique Christian background, this article tries to restore him a true theologian by studying him in the background of era, culture and experences. First, this article will study his aesthetic standpoints and Art theory. Also, the causes of his aesthetic points and mode of expression will be explained, in order to discover his qualities as a theological aesthetician. In addition, the article also seeks the modern value of his aesthetic thought: providing a exceeding way for contemporary human who are in the current spiritual plight; providing a divine perspective for salvation of aesthetic difficulties;providing a space on deep reflection for contemporary art which is banal and vulgar. we expect that it can excite more attention to the Middle Ages and Christian theological aesthetic and more thinking about the survival of mankind, literary arts and Aesthetics.The thesis is divided into four parts: The introduction section mainly introduces the domestic and international research about Augustine's aesthetic thought, the methods of study, innovation and framework about the thesis and so on. The first part mainly discusses Augustine's aesthetic thought on the beauty and the art dimensions, discussing his aesthetic theory from Beauty in God,Beauty in order and discussing his art thoughts from Art Happens,Art Mission,Art Creation,Art Appreciation .The second part discusses the main causes of his aesthetic thought and his mode of expression.The cause of his aesthetic thought is the result of multiple factors:the inheritance of sages's thought,the influence of religious background,the strengthening of life experience,the potential search of life.The features of his aesthetic theory are inner experience of the metaphysical tell and the quote of Bible words.Learning it can help us insight into the essence of theological aesthetics.The third part mainly focuses on the enlightenal values of Augustine's aesthetis thought in modern times; The fourth part (conclusion) mainly evaluates Augustine's theological aesthetics on the whole, while analyzing the limitation.