The Recovery of Beauty – The Revd Professor Mark McIntosh – Public Lecture 6 February

Research Summary: Beautiful Ideas: The Visibility of Truth

Event Type: Academic public lecture in The Recovery of Beauty programme

Speaker: Revd Professor Mark McIntosh, Van Mildert Professor of Divinity, University of Durham

Date & Time: Monday, 6 February 2012, 6:15 p.m.

Location: Lecture Room 201, Elvet Riverside

Primary Focus: Metaphysical conditions of beauty as epiphany and disclosure of truth within Western philosophical tradition

Key Themes: Beauty's connection to transcendentals of truth and goodness; cosmos as expression of intelligibility; contemplation as ascent towards theoretical understanding

Speaker Credentials: Ph.D. Theology (University of Chicago); former professor at Loyola University Chicago; Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission representative; specialist in Christian mystical thought and divine ideas tradition

Scholarly Focus: Recovery of beauty beyond tragic or dangerous interpretations through reappraisal of its transformative power as visible disclosure of reality

As part of the IAS The Recovery of Beauty programme, CMH directors Jane Macnaughton and Corinne Saunders are very pleased to welcome The Revd Professor Mark McIntosh, Van Mildert Professor of Divinity, University of Durham, and Canon Residentiary of Durham Cathedral, who will deliver the seventh lecture:

Revd Professor Mark McIntosh

Beautiful Ideas: The Visibility of Truth

Monday 6 February 2012, 6.15 p.m. Lecture Room 201, Elvet Riverside

For his inaugural lecture as Van Mildert Professor of Divinity, Mark McIntosh considers the metaphysical conditions within which beauty can be seen and thought. If beauty is to be recoverable today as more than starkly tragic or dangerous, its connection to the other ‘transcendentals’ of truth and goodness will also need to be appraised. For much of the history of Western thought, the beautiful was understood to be an epiphany, a disclosure of depths of reality and truthfulness that was both attractive and often transforming to its beholder. Searching for reasons why this was thought to be so, the lecture explores
the particular case of the beauty of the cosmos, understood as an expression of intelligibility and meaning, and the role of contemplation in bringing truth to birth in those who gaze on the beauty of the visible as an ascent towards the theoretical.

Mark McIntosh holds degrees in History and Theology from Yale and Oxford Universities, and a Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Chicago. Before taking up his post at Durham, he was professor of systematic theology and spirituality at Loyola University Chicago, and has authored monographs on the history and theology of Christian mystical thought. He is currently under contract with Oxford University Press for a study of the divine ideas tradition in history and its potential significance today. He is also canon residentiary of Durham Cathedral and an Anglican representative on the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. For six years he served as chaplain to the House of
Bishops of the Episcopal Church, USA, and as canon theologian to the 25th Presiding Bishop and Primate.

We very much hope that you are able to join us for this and forthcoming events in The Recovery of Beauty Lecture Series.