Abstract:
This chapter, in honour of Johan Cilliers, will not seek to engage his extensive oeuvre,
but rather focus on a single text (2011), Fides Quaerens pulchrum: Practical theological
perspectives on the desire for beauty, which I believe encapsulates something of Johan
Cilliers’ passion as well as fits into the theme of this volume. From his article certain
key terms or even themes can be identified. I will engage these key themes by bringing
them into conversation with the thoughts of Lacan and Hegel, and thereby enter into
a conversation with his article and honour his thought. The key themes that I have
identified from this article are the following: beauty, imagination, art, art theory,
aesthetics, Ästhetik des Hässlichen, Negativschönen, desire, the good, and lastly the
consequences of these various concepts for practical theology.
