Buy new:
-27% $34.47
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$34.47 with 27 percent savings
List Price: $46.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 10. Order within 14 hrs 50 mins
In Stock
$$34.47 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$34.47
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$30.98
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
100% Satisfaction Guaranteed. Ships directly from Amazon. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed. Ships directly from Amazon. See less
FREE delivery Wednesday, May 15 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$34.47 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$34.47
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

David Bentley Hart
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth Paperback – October 29, 2004

by David Bentley Hart (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 64 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$34.47","priceAmount":34.47,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"34","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"47","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"ML6pBS0i%2BzFY6MD5H7qyLGjGDsto9b7grjBRVorW8RGmHVhhfwt5p7aAg4XrvuwDgB90sMZibumh15Brt2w2hVlKN%2FPxX%2FjyTcTBxWoM9bHaD6ukZtwsbDI6odBTFpxTvHgnTrqvlfY%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$30.98","priceAmount":30.98,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"30","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"98","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"ML6pBS0i%2BzFY6MD5H7qyLGjGDsto9b7guyEroAf1CLQ5Agz9leHuGvTccwJLFXAiH0GuV7wdQox0R%2FS6%2BVxSjbCYy%2F5o9H%2FV4aBkPqksRHMVeqP6LgSHF8dlRK%2BoFOGIOz7q%2FeoIWuB0vNkMfndHM%2B%2BjGnbTyGhYYinuOjGfr9tnnkK9Mq1tav0Yw8DdayR2","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The Beauty of the Infinite is a splendid extended essay in "theological aesthetics." David Bentley Hart here meditates on the power of a Christian understanding of beauty and sublimity to rise above the violence -- both philosophical and literal -- characteristic of the postmodern world.

The book begins by tracing the shifting use and nature of metaphysics in the thought of Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Lyotard, Derrida, Deleuze, Nancy, Levinas, and others. Hart pays special attention to Nietzsche's famous narrative of the "will to power" -- a narrative largely adopted by the world today -- and he offers an engaging revision (though not rejection) of the genealogy of nihilism, thereby highlighting the significant "interruption" that Christian thought introduced into the history of metaphysics.

This discussion sets the stage for a retrieval of the classic Christian account of beauty and sublimity, and of the relation of both to the question of being. Written in the form of a dogmatica minora, this main section of the book offers a pointed reading of the Christian story in four moments, or parts: Trinity, creation, salvation, and eschaton. Through a combination of narrative and argument throughout, Hart ends up demonstrating the power of Christian metaphysics not only to withstand the critiques of modern and postmodern thought but also to move well beyond them.

Strikingly original and deeply rewarding, The Beauty of the Infinite is both a constructively critical account of the history of metaphysics and a compelling contribution to it.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    462 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Eerdmans
  4. Publication date
    October 29, 2004
  5. Dimensions
    6.22 x 0.98 x 9.4 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    080282921X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0802829214
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth
$34.47
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss
$16.32
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation
$13.25
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

National Review
"David Bentley Hart has written one of the most thrilling works of Christian reflection to come along in years. . . This is theology as high adventure, and the excitement continues after the last page is turned."

William C. Placher in The Christian Century
"I can think of no more brilliant work by an American theologian in the past ten years."

R. R. Reno
"An elegant, erudite treatment of basic themes in Christian theology, metaphysics, and contemporary cultural criticism. David Bentley Hart has written a book that is both radical and orthodox. The Beauty of the Infinite sets the standard for postmodern theology."

Paul J. Griffiths
"David Bentley Hart's book shows great patristic and philosophical learning. That is rare enough. Still more rare is the book's compellingly complete theology of beauty. Hart shows that the sublime aesthetic of the market -- this age's chief principality -- can be disrupted by (and perhaps only by) the gospel's radiant beauty. This book makes a major contribution to bringing that disruption about."

Reinhard Hütter
"Drawing from deep Eastern Orthodox wells, The Beauty of the Infinite achieves an extraordinary theological analysis and transformation of the postmodern condition. A work of breathtaking scope, David Bentley Hart's book combines an impressive mastery of the Christian theological tradition, East and West, with a subtle yet rigorous critique of the philosophical zeitgeist, culminating in a constructive systematic theology of stunning scope. By way of a trinitarian theology of beauty, Hart succeeds in composing a dogmatica minora that radically revises the metaphysical horizon of postmodernity. This book is Christian theology and metaphysics of a high order, an extremely rewarding tour de force."

R. Trent Pomplun
"David Bentley Hart -- like Soloviev and Florensky before him -- stands in the finest tradition of virile Eastern alternatives to modern Western philosophy and theology. A startling rejoinder to modernity and postmodernity alike, Hart's book will be judged by future historians as a fresh start for Orthodox theology done in the United States."

Geoffrey Wainwright in First Things
"A remarkable work. . . This magnificent and demanding volume should establish David Bentley Hart, around the world no less than in North America, as one of his generation's leading theologians."

John Milbank
"David Hart is already the best living American systematic theologian. The Beauty of the Infinite is his first major work."

Janet Martin Soskice in Times Literary Supplement
"A splendid book. . . Hart's prose is trenchant but often beautiful. There are penetrating, and frequently amusing, critiques of Foucault, Bultmann, and Deleuze, among others. . . The Beauty of the Infinite shows the vigor and power of theology, ancient and modern."

Nova et Vetera
"Despite the relative youth of its author, The Beauty of the Infinite merits consideration as one of the most ambitious and theologically insightful contributions to the field in the past decade. David Hart's fluid prose, sweeping grasp of theology and continental philosophy, and creativity enables him to ferry the reader from eastern patristic theology to French postmodernism, from Greek Attic tragedy to Nietzsche and Heidegger. His work deserves a careful reading by all serious students of theology."

The Journal of Religion
"On every page of The Beauty of the Infinite are provocative and original readings. Hart debunks many unexamined pieties nascent in the postmodern idiom and, at the same time, displays his own genius for rhetorical invention. Hyperarticulate and a great phrasemaker, Hart will please the logophile as well as the philologist; his erudition . . . and his eloquence . .

From the Back Cover

"The Beauty of the Infinite" is a splendid extended essay in btheological aesthetics.b David Bentley Hart here meditates on the power of a Christian understanding of beauty and sublimity to rise above the violence -- both philosophical and literal -- characteristic of the postmodern world.

The book begins by tracing the shifting use and nature of metaphysics in the thought of Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Lyotard, Derrida, Deleuze, Nancy, Levinas, and others. Hart pays special attention to Nietzschebs famous narrative of the bwill to powerb -- a narrative largely adopted by the world today -- and he offers an engaging revision (though not rejection) of the genealogy of nihilism, thereby highlighting the significant binterruptionb that Christian thought introduced into the history of metaphysics.

This discussion sets the stage for a retrieval of the classic Christian account of beauty and sublimity, and of the relation of both to the question of being. Written in the form of a "dogmatica minora," this main section of the book offers a pointed reading of the Christian story in four moments, or parts: Trinity, creation, salvation, and eschaton. Through a combination of narrative and argument throughout, Hart ends up demonstrating the power of Christian metaphysics not only to withstand the critiques of modern and postmodern thought but also to move well beyond them.

Strikingly original and deeply rewarding, "The Beauty of the Infinite" is both a constructively critical account of the history of metaphysics and a compelling contribution to it.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Eerdmans (October 29, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 462 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 080282921X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802829214
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.22 x 0.98 x 9.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 64 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
David Bentley Hart

David Bentley Hart

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

David Bentley Hart is the author of several volumes of fiction, philosophy, religious studies, and literary criticism, among them Roland in Moonlight, Kenogaia, The Experience of God, The Devil and Pierre Gernet, and You Are Gods. He is also a translator from various languages, and has produced a critical edition of the New Testament. He is co-author with his son Patrick of two children’s novels.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
64 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jacob
5.0 out of 5 stars Dense and Breathtaking
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2008
Verified Purchase
It took me several months to finish this book. Hart argues for getting beauty back as a theological category. Reformed and the more intellectually rigorous evangelicals are the ones who will likely read this book. That is good. Those are the ones--and I am reformed--who need to see beauty in theology. Hart uses the latest vocabulary from postmodern philosophy. the reader is urged patience in this regard. The first section of the book (the first 150 or so pages) is incredibly hard to read. Hart assumes that his readers are intimiately familiar with Nietzsche, Derrida, and Levinas. I wasn't.

Hart argues that the Trinity is the answer to the postmodern problem of *differance.* Where postmoderns see the world--and language--as chaotic and violent because of the inherent difference of reality, Hart sees the Trinity as a sublime answer to differance. The Trinity can accommodate differance because the Trinity can posit a reality that is both diversity without confusion, otherness without violence. This is the hardest part of the book. What Hart is saying is that postmoderns--and most Calvinists, ironically--assume that any difference in reality is necessarily violent. Hart shows how the Trinity solves the problem of linguistic violence.

The rest of the book after that is relatively easy to read. Hart divides his book into Trinity-Creation-Salvation-Eschatology categories. This is where his Eastern Orthodoxy is evident and provides a welcome relief to the strictly judicial categories of the West. The section on salvation literally sang! The last 200 pages were a brilliant tour-de-force.

This book has the potential to re-write American theology. It also can unify across confessional lines without watering the unity down into the usual WCC garbage. Let's hope that Hart writes more.

LATER EDIT:
I've re-read this book (and parts of the book several times again). After reading and listening to a lot of Hart, I began to notice that while Hart often makes weighty and learned points and regularly scores on a high level, at other times I think he is simply showing off his erudition. There are some sections in here on St Gregory of Nyssa and Hart's exposition of them, while beautiful, really do not make any sense upon further reflection. I would give some examples but it would make the review unnecessarily long.

I think Hart tries to rescue St Augustine on Absolute Divine Simplicity. It is a brilliant attempt, but I don't think he is successful. Still, the pros of the book outweight the (significant!) cons. It is definitely worth reading due to its importance today.

Post-Post EDIT: A few commenters took umbrage at my criticisms of St August. on simplicity. Whatever. I think I have guessed why so many people have the same reaction to this book (though they differ on whether they like it or not). Hart is interacting with the post-Heideggerian schools of philosophy and their challenges (real or perceived) to the Christian faith. If you are struggling with Heidegger's genealogy of the Western narrative, this book is for you. If you are not, then much of this book won't make sense. I'm actually more favorable to Hart now than I have been in the past; my criticisms still remain, though.
86 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
tim_farrington
5.0 out of 5 stars Infinitely beautiful.
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2016
Verified Purchase
“Εἰ θεολόγος εἶ, προσεύξῃ ἀληθῶς, καὶ εἰ άληθῶς προσεύξῃ, θεολόγος εἶ,” as Evagrius of Pontus said: “If you are a theologian, you pray truly; and if you pray truly, you are a theologian.” (153 Chapters on Prayer (Περι προσευχῆς), Translation by Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.)

If you have gotten this far, this may be a great book for you. It is, for starters, very good news. You will be heartened by David Bentley Hart’s astoundingly lucid prose, even if you only comprehend every third word and every hundredth sentence. Start with the letter “B” in the title, and take it one letter at a time. It will be worth it, in pure delight, and by the time you are ten pages in, you will have mastered the unwritten wisdom of the Kabbalists as well.
I have been astonished for years that there are so few reviews of this book, but as I began to try to address that apparent injustice and write one myself, I realized why there are so few: there are not that many people who pray enough, these days.

This was several years ago. At that point, I set myself to first jotting down a few notes, things along the lines of “If you have ever been blind-sided by Nietzsche, or gone down for the third time in the middle Heidegger, or hung in there, sensing something of the most imminent relevance in Derrida, and just waiting for him to finish his aerial acrobatics on this particular ssentence and stick the landing, and you are waiting still . . .” But you see, that is exactly the kind of thing that will simply not help this book gain the wider readership one would hope for it, as one would hope more people might listen to Bach with deep ecstatic ears, or Coltrane, or Ravi Shankar.

But I digress. The point is, after all these years of jotting notes, and doing some supplemental reading (Augustine in Latin on the Trinity; Levinas, in French, with German footnotes; Maximos the Confessor in the original Greek, with a parallel modern Greek translation text; Leonard Cohen; Bach’s secret journals, written in a mirror code of musical notes; Rumi’s Dance Lessons for Infidels . . . But again, I digress.) . .

“Where was I? The two-star reviews of this book are dead on. There are much easier books to read.” (note from 2007.)

I have dedicated myself to writing a worthy review of this book for quite some time. I have failed. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa maxima. I intend to get it right, or at least to continue re-incarnating until all sentient beings are saved. I will be the last sentient being saved, in that case, as I will still be doing the background reading required to understand the simplest sentence in chapter 2.

But I digress. God bless David Bentley Hart. He is a true theologian, and this book is pure dizzying delight, a beautiful book on beauty, a divine book on God. He punches every tar baby of postmodernism along the way and comes out clean as a penny whistle and smelling like a rose. This is itself is enough to recommend the book.

This is not quite a review yet. But I noticed that 68 people have read one of the better five-star reviews of this book, so somebody is already doing something right here, and I take comfort, in my endless labors on this review, in that. I also take comfort in the fact that Jacob himself posted two updates to his primo review, so ha, his is a work in progress too.

This is, at least, is the prolegomenon to some notes toward the beginning of a consideration of this book’s utter and delightful loveliness. If you have read this far, this may be a great book for you. Begin with the letter “B” in the title; pray as necessary to continue; rinse, lather, repeat.
21 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Wes J. Arblaster
5.0 out of 5 stars A theological aesthetics to truly savor
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2010
Verified Purchase
This is a theological aesthetics of the highest order that is also thoroughly enjoyable. Hart displays a mastery of postmodern philosophy, patristic theology, and a general theological acuity that is truly mind-boggling. Yet you find yourself reading it with a quiet smile. While I have slogged my way through it from cover to cover twice, I find it much better read in small "morsels" so that one can savor his insight and rhetorical play in a manner which tantalizes the intellectual palate. It is beautiful, bewildering, inspiring, and intellectually exhausting - and all in a playful way! While at times his rhetoric does come across as somewhat excessive and his provocations brow-raising, one should not forget that the work displays in form what it suggests in content: that Being is itself the rhetorical display of the glorious excess of the Trintiarian life of God. I know that I will return to this work for years to come and will continue to enjoy it heartily, even in its verbosity and ostentatiousness. Consider it an intellectual cathedral which displays a playful grandeur that overwhelms and intices, puzzles and silences. Wander in, and do not hesitate to find yourself lost and enjoying every minute of it!
27 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

CHRISTOPHER WADDLE
5.0 out of 5 stars It is like sipping a fine liqueur
Reviewed in Canada on February 16, 2018
Verified Purchase
This book of theology is a dream to read. It is like sipping a fine liqueur. Beautiful!
One person found this helpful
 Report