Contesting Chaosmos: (Re)Viewing Medieval Aesthetics

Abstract

This article analyses the hermeneutic dispute of the contemporary value of medieval aesthetics within the writing of two giants in the 20th century—Umberto Eco and Hans Urs von Balthasar. I claim that Eco’s Joycean adaptation of medieval aesthetics uses religious language to insert a permanent, postmodern aesthetic dismantling of cosmic form. I argue that Balthasar’s reading of Dante challenges the limits that Eco frames as inherent within the medieval cosmos, and that Balthasar offers an adaptive medieval aesthetics that rebuts the religious overhaul Eco demands. This debate amplifies the flexibility of aesthetics based on form to attune to contemporary concerns while remaining faithful to the fundamental religious commitments of Christian tradition.