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Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

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aesthetics

The Aesthetics of Design, Automotive and Religious

October 11, 2014 by Randal

The Pontiac Aztek is widely recognized to be one of the great design failures in automotive history. It represented the disastrous results when function steamrolls form and no attention is given to aesthetic appeal or organic unity. Bob Lutz, the renown automobile executive, came to work at GM after the Aztek debacle. In this recent […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: aesthetics, Aztek, Bob Lutz, church, ecclesiology, Peter Hitchens

Would you rather be a great artist or a commercially successful one?

June 29, 2014 by Randal

This weekend the latest Transformers movie was released. As one might expect, the film was mercilessly panned by critics even as it is packing the local Cineplex and knocking on the door of a one hundred million dollar box office weekend. In other words, this critical turd appears to be the common man’s ideal night […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: aesthetics, artistry, commerce, illustrator, Michael Bay

Is “God’s not Dead” a modern classic?

May 6, 2014 by Randal

Over the last two days I have receive some substantial backlash for my criticism of the current domineering popularity of middling superhero movies at the box office. The primary charge seems to have been that I am elitist in my opinions. But there is an ironic twist to this story. After some discussion with my two […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: aesthetics, film criticism, movies

Does theology make God ugly?

July 17, 2013 by Randal

My podcast interview with theologian Oliver Crisp on Christology drew several interesting responses. Was Jesus the best at everything? For example, Fox observed: “If Christ were a barista, would he have made the best doppio ristretto possible? Oliver Crisp imagines so.” I addressed this similar point in my essay “Can Jesus make a better Caesar […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: aesthetics, God, mystery, theology

Living artwork over the plains of Texas

June 14, 2013 by Randal

If you haven’t seen this time-lapse video of a supercell storm over the Texas plains you should definitely check it out. And since I’d be remiss not to include a theological or philosophical angle, isn’t it interesting how many of the most beautiful entities (structures, processes, etc) in nature yield the greatest destruction?  

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: aesthetics, beauty, natural evil, supercell

Vomit flavored jelly beans and other offenses to the natural order

November 13, 2010 by Randal

As I noted last time, people disagree radically on their conceptions of what it means to flourish. To some people, flourishing would mean growing old and full of years. But Roger Daltrey (lead singer of The Who) hoped he’d die before he gets old (see the lyrics for “My Generation” for further clarification). And as for Eric […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: aesthetics, ethics, Jelly Belly, morality, naturalism, relativism, taste

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