The duty to create un beau vivant

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.