| During the long process of development of Western civilization, the Bible has been considered as a classic work in religious field and the corner stone of Western civilization as well. The Bible and ancient Greek civilization reinforce each other and make contribution to the development of Western religious concepts, literature views. It becomes the source of western philosophy and aesthetics. The Old Testament is a classic work of Judaism, which is a contract made by God and human beings. The Bible is composed of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Genesis is a part of Pentateuch, which describes a set of stories about God’s creation of the world and reflects Hebrew’s imagination and sublime heroism. Genesis is of great aesthetic value.This paper combines the literary aesthetics and theological aesthetics to explain the aesthetic method and values of Genesis.This thesis mainly consists of five chapters.Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the thesis, which contains research background, the purpose, and the basic ideas of the thesis.Chapter Two provides the two branches of aesthetics:literary aesthetics and theological aesthetics. Also the research status of the Bible at home and abroad is expounded in this chapter.Chapter Three analyzes the literary aesthetic features in Genesis, including Meynell’s aesthetic standards, and Genesis’s aesthetic values related to the objectivity, universality, and uniqueness. The research on Genesis’aesthetic values are divided into four sections:firstly, the plot analysis of Genesis reflects some basic characteristics of human life:family, marriage, children are the core characters of human life; Hagar in despair found a well which symbolizes the hopes and difficulties existed in human life; the development of the Israel nation presents the importance of territory and nation in human life. Secondly, uniqueness and originality of the plot arrangement in Genesis can be recognized by its symmetry and unpredictability rationality of plot creation. Thirdly, the paper gives a description of the beauty of portrayal of characters in Genesis which can be reflected by the distinctive disposition and personalities of the characters. Lastly, this paper expounds on the beauty of unity and consistency of the subthemes in Genesis.Chapter Four tries to analyze the theological aesthetic features of the Genesis based on Balthasar’s theological thought. In Balthasar’s theological aesthetic system. the goal of theological aesthetics is to let people understand the nature and root of the beauty. Beauty is described as a transcendent eternal existence, which is God himself. Beauty is one of the fundamental characteristics of God. God is the noumenon and root of the beauty. This chapter is divided into three parts based on Balthasar’s theological aesthetic thoughts. Firstly, God’s glory is reflected in his divinity, which is embedded in his name and his words. Secondly, God’s image, human beings are the imperfect image of God. Through the description of the imperfection of human characters, God’s perfect image, Christ, is reflected. Thirdly, God’s grace and covenant constructs the relationship between God and human beings. In order to lead people back to his glory, God gives his bless and orders to human beings.Chapter Five is the conclusion part. Through the comprehensive exploration of aesthetic value of Genesis, this paper aims at explaining the points that literary beauty comes from beautiful things in physical world and theological beauty is abstract and it also serves as the root of the beauty. The appreciation of the Bible should not only be limited to the appreciation of its representative forms, in which the intrinsical beauty of its religious origin should also be involved. The aesthetic appreciation in this paper can not only help to perfect the systematic research of Genesis, but also shows great significance and enlightenment to the analysis of other religious texts. |
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