This study is part of the Special Issue on Experimental Theological Aesthetics (XTA) and examines how sacred language functions as an aesthetic and theological medium for encountering the divine.
Titled The Architecture of the Divine Names, this research —to be published in April 2026— explores the experiential and comparative impact of the 72 Divine Names in the Hebrew tradition and the 99 Divine Names in Islamic theology on consciousness, emotion, and spiritual perception.
A bridge between art, theology, and empirical science
The project brings together art, comparative theology, and empirical scientific methods to investigate how the forms, rhythms, and resonances of sacred language mediate the human search for the transcendent.
The study will take place in four countries, involving 200 participants —Muslim and Jewish, religious and non-religious— who will encounter the Divine Names through three modalities:
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Visual: written form and sacred calligraphy
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Auditory: recitation of the names
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Musical: sung renditions of sacred formulas
What we measure: aesthetics as neurophenomenology
Through a combination of:
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neurophenomenological methods,
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voice prosody analysis,
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emotional facial recognition,
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heart coherence assessment,
the study examines how the rhythm, geometry, and resonance of the Divine Names generate measurable physiological and emotional shifts, such as:
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calm and regulation,
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reverential states,
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openness to transcendence,
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expanded perception of meaning.
A living architecture of revelation
By integrating theological interpretation with empirical inquiry, this project advances the central aim of XTA: understanding how aesthetic experience can foster spiritual meaning, devotional awareness, and encounters with the divine.
The research proposes that sacred language forms a living architecture of revelation —a bridge where sound becomes structure, beauty becomes cognition, and the ineffable becomes momentarily perceptible to human consciousness.
Keywords: Experimental Theological Aesthetics, Sacred Language, Divine Names, Calligraphy, Neuroaesthetics, Heart Coherence, Consciousness, Comparative Theology, Spiritual Experience.
