UT TYLER GRAD’S NEW BOOK NOW AT #1 ON AMAZON’S HOT NEW RELEASES

Published 5:29 am Saturday, November 16, 2019

UT TYLER GRAD AT #1 AND #2 ON AMAZON’S “HOT NEW RELEASES”

https://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/491424/ref=zg_b_hnr_491424_1?fbclid=IwAR18H1ilXauY1rcF9v6-k3yqjdGJvmXRsApMEbOVtSYBEhSnrFYvNeoia04

November 16, 2019

Hal Brunson, 813 401-0337, xarisxaieirene@gmail.com

Terrible Majesty: Biblical Aesthetics and Authentic Fear

[Whitefish, MT]- Two versions of Dr. Hal Brunson’s book TERRIBLE MAJESTY now stand at #1 and #2 on Amazon’s list “Hot New Releases” of books on aesthetics. The book explores the Platonic concepts of Goodness, Beauty, and Truth, but Brunson argues that Plato’s aesthetic philosophy is deficient without the inclusion of angst (dread or terror) as an essential component of sublime experience. The author points to Immanuel Kant as an ally in his argument, and illustrates his point with more modern writers, artists, musicians, and philosophers such as Ernest Hemingway, Edvard Munch, Albert Camus, Arnold Schoenberg, and the Rolling Stones.

Dr. Brunson’s book is much more than a quibble with Plato; it’s an indictment of contemporary Christian churches who, he says, “have forgotten that ‘the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.’” He writes, “The imbalanced ‘theology’ of too many ‘churches’ leaves them sitting at the well beside the Samaritan woman and hearing the indictment, ‘You worship ye know not what.’ If it is true that those who worship God ‘must worship Him in Spirit and in truth,’ and if it is also true that ‘the fear of the LORD is the beginning’ of both ‘knowledge’ and ‘wisdom,’ then we must conclude that the typical ‘church’ knows little or nothing, and says even less, about the fear of God.”

Brunson asserts that “recognition of authentic fear as normative to Christian experience requires ‘a complete re-thinking and re-telling of ourselves of Whom God declares Himself to be, a God of ‘terrible majesty.’” 

He concludes his book on an ominous note: “The prospect of such a momentous turnaround in our theology, soteriology, and preaching seems to be a gargantuan unlikelihood apart from a radical move of the Holy Spirit tantamount to the Great Reformation or, God forbid, some national or global catastrophe like World War II, or worse.”

A former Tyler resident, Hal Brunson has authored over twenty books and now resides in Whitefish, Montana. He earned the Ph.D. in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. His books can be perused here: amazon.com/author/halbrunson.