음악과 신정론 = Music and Theodicy : ‘If evil exists, God exists’

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Does music save? Pythagoras does suggest this possibility saying that everything is made of numbers. Through its historical survey of the so-called Pythagorean aesthetic tradition in Christianity including the New Testament, Augustine, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, Leibniz, Bach, Hegel, Barth, and John Cage, the article offers a historical analysis of music and theodicy with the following three tentative suggestions.
Firstly, in the Pythagorean aesthetics, music functions as a wordless theology. Like the contemporary ‘string theory’ in physics, the Pythagorean aesthetics is based on the conviction that music and the universe share the common isomorphism of vibrating numbers. Second, the theodicy of music is based on the logic of contrastive harmony that partial dissonances enhance the beauty of the overall consonances. Consequently, the existence of evil does not disprove the existence of God, as St. Thomas Aquinas correctly claims, but prove God’s existence on the contrary. For disorder is needed for the existence of order and beauty. Lastly, music is a symbol of eschatological hope. If the universe is in fact God’s perfect work of art, you cannot take something from it or add something to it even if it is not beautifying at the moment. As Aristotle’s definition of a “perfect work of art” shows, “excess and deficiency destroy perfection” (Nicomachean Ethics, 2.6.9). In this sense, human music does not save us but give us eschatological hope for fulfillment and salvation of the world in the future.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Does music save? Pythagoras does suggest this possibility saying that everything is made of numbers. Through its historical survey of the so-called Pythagorean aesthetic tradition in Christianity including the New Testament, Augustine, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, Leibniz, Bach, Hegel, Barth, and John Cage, the article offers a historical analysis of music and theodicy with the following three tentative suggestions.
Firstly, in the Pythagorean aesthetics, music functions as a wordless theology. Like the contemporary ‘string theory’ in physics, the Pythagorean aesthetics is based on the conviction that music and the universe share the common isomorphism of vibrating numbers. Second, the theodicy of music is based on the logic of contrastive harmony that partial dissonances enhance the beauty of the overall consonances. Consequently, the existence of evil does not disprove the existence of God, as St. Thomas Aquinas correctly claims, but prove God’s existence on the contrary. For disorder is needed for the existence of order and beauty. Lastly, music is a symbol of eschatological hope. If the universe is in fact God’s perfect work of art, you cannot take something from it or add something to it even if it is not beautifying at the moment. As Aristotle’s definition of a “perfect work of art” shows, “excess and deficiency destroy perfection” (Nicomachean Ethics, 2.6.9). In this sense, human music does not save us but give us eschatological hope for fulfillment and salvation of the world in the future.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 서론
• Ⅱ. 찬송 가운데 태어난 교회
• Ⅲ. 피타고라스 미학
• Ⅳ. 시간의 음악
• Ⅴ. ‘만약 악이 존재한다면, 하나님은 존재한다’
• Ⅵ. 결론 : 희망의 알레고리
• 참고문헌
• Abstract

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 손호현, "캐트린 테너의 대중문화의 신학: 대중문화로 본 하나님, 교회, 성서" 한국신학연구소 (161) : 37-72, 2013

2 손호현, "아름다움과 악 2권: 아우구스티누스의 미학과 신정론" 한들출판사 2009

3 움베르토 에코, "미의 역사" 열린책들 2004

4 Tanner, Kathryn, "Theories of Culture: A New Agenda For Theology" Fortress 1997

5 Blackwell, Albert L, "The Sacred in Music" Westminster John Knox Press 1999

6 Mourelatos, Alexander P. D, "The Pre-Socratics" Anchor Books 1974

7 Butt, John, "The Cambridge Companion to Bach" Cambridge University Press 1997

8 Aquinas, Thomas, "Summa Contra Gentiles, Book Three: Providence, Part I" University of Notre Dame Press 1975

9 Leeuw, Gerardus van der, "Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art" Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1963

10 Chamberlain, David S., "Philosophy of Music in the Consolatio of Boethius" 45 (45): 80-97, 1970

11 Leibniz, G. W., "Philosophical Essays" Hackett 1989

12 McKinnon, James, "Music in early Christian literature" Cambridge University Press 1987

13 Brown, David, "God & Grace of Body" Oxford University Press 2007

14 Barth, Karl, "Dogmatics in Outline" SCM Press 1949

15 Barth, Karl, "Church Dogmatics III.3: The Doctrine of Creation" T & T Clark 1960

16 Mellers, Wilfrid, "Bach and The Dance of God" Travis & Emery 2009

17 Perl, Carl Johann, "Augustine and Music: On the Occasion of the 1600th Anniversary of the Saint" 41 (41): 496-510, 1955

18 O’Connell, Robert J., "Art and the Christian Intelligence in St. Augustine" Harvard University Press 1978

19 Hegel, G. W. F., "Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art" Clarendon Press 1975

20 Grant, Robert M., "A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible" Fortress Press 1984