The Aesthetic Thought and View of Art of Thomas Aquinas

Acknowledgments
Contents
1 Introduction
	1 The Formation of Thomas Aquinas’s System of Thought
	2 Current Research on Thomas Aquinas’s Aesthetic Thought
		2.1 Current Status of Research in European and English-speaking Academia
		2.2 The Current State of Research Within the Chinese Academic Community
2 The Theological Philosophy of the Aesthetician Thomas Aquinas
	1 Aquinas the Theologian
	2 Theologizing and Philosophizing
	3 Thomas Aquinas’s Aesthetic Thought and Aristotle’s Theory of Form and Matter
3 Content and Characteristics of Thomas Aquinas’ Aesthetic Thought
	1 Ontology of Beauty
	2 Formalisms of Beauty
		2.1 Integrity or Perfection
		2.2 Proportion or Harmony
		2.3 Brightness or Clarity
	3 Empiricism of Beauty
4 Thomas Aquinas’s View of Art
	1 Art and Production
	2 Art and Nature
		2.1 Art Imitates Nature
		2.2 Art Is Lower Than Nature
		2.3 Remarks
	3 Exegesis and Hermeneutics
		3.1 The Tradition of Exegesis
		3.2 Thomas Aquinas’s Exegesis: The Four Senses
	4 Metaphor and Symbolism
		4.1 Symbolism as a Form of Thought
		4.2 The Symbolism of the Image of Jesus Christ
5 The Position and Significance of Thomas Aquinas’s Aesthetic Thoughts in the History of Aesthetics
	1 Aquinas and Medieval Aesthetics
	2 Aquinas and Modern Aesthetics
		2.1 The Relationship Between the Beautiful and the Good
		2.2 The Subjective and Objective Relationship of Beauty
	3 Aquinas, Twentieth-Century Neo-Thomism, and Theological Aesthetics
		3.1 Art as a Creative Act: Aquinas and Maritain
		3.2 “The Luster of Form” and “The Light of Glory”: Aquinas and Balthasar
6 Conclusion
	1 The Profound Influence of Aquinas
	2 The Modern Value of Aquinas’s Aesthetic Thought
Appendices
Appendix I: Chronology of Thomas Aquinas\'s Life and Death*,**
Appendix II: Chronology of the Chinese Translations of the Works of Thomas Aquinas ***
Postscript
References
Index