“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:8-12)
I was at a Christmas party this past weekend and found myself in a conversation with a delightful Christian fellow who is working towards a PhD in Philosophy. His chosen subject is the philosophy of beauty and aesthetics. Now, I don’t pretend to know anything about that, but the idea certainly sent my mind racing.Upon further reflection, I affirm the insight that beauty lies in the thwarting of man’s compulsion to assert and define himself (original sin and bondage). Or, more specifically, the cessation of man’s striving. That, and the creation of faith. And, more often than not, this thwarting and creation is ugly to human eyes. When eyes are taken off technically correct dogmas and formulae and set upon the ugliness of the creation of faith, there is nothing left to do but mourn.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4
This is the difference between a wild-eyed and desperate acquiescence or liberation that comes from death and the interruption in human history that we believed happened two thousand years ago. And we actually believe (as mentioned in Luke 2 above) that This Child arrived in a place and manner that was below human achievement and glory. The glory of God was manifested in a troublesome backwater that had no value in the progressive march to Man’s triumph.
And if this recession, an addiction, or anything else has destroyed what you and everyone else perceives as value; and you find yourself faced with either the Albert Camus/desperate freedom of death or the Luke 2 version, hear these words from Martin Luther:
“If Christ had arrived with trumpets and lain in a cradle of gold, his birth would have been a splendid affair. But it would not be a comfort to me. He was rather to lie in the lap of a poor maiden and be thought of little significance in the eyes of the world. Now I can come to him.”
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7 responses to “Hard Times, Recession Depression, and The Whole Duty of Man, Pt III”
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The over arching power of creation leaves us dwarfed, if we're honest, by our smallness and in all manner of ways, our insignificance before a realm so marked by death and futility, so the image derived from here is perhaps one a power that leaves us aware of our detachment from satisfactory meaning – perhaps that is why beauty is so important. Soloman spoke of the God who has made 'everything beautiful in its time and placed eternity in our hearts', and it is those shards, those still moments when beauty strikes us, that we touch something of the transcendance of His grace – a whisper of a much deeper reality.
The 'noise' of fallen existence often seeks to drown out such a beauty, but if we think about this time of the year, if we cut through all the wrapping and the distractions, then it is possible, by His mercy, to see something richer, deeper and brighter than our mis-placed, foolish confidence in our feeble ways.
May we indeed commune with the marvel and wonder of the richest gift our race will ever receive – Christ, wrapped in the poverty of our world, healing that same realm by His life.
Thanks Browder, this is a really interesting series of posts. You are right that some theologians push it too far. Paul seems to say in Rom 1 that the creation does testify to the existence of God, though. The problem I think you hit on is that it was never designed to proclaim the incarnation or Christ's active/passive obedience. From that standpoint, the creation appears indifferent to the cross. However, I wonder if frightening phenomena like riptides and black holes may have a different role in God's plan. They may even remind us of the horrors of the cross, the feeling of desperation and helplessness that caused the Son to cry out…or they might simply be a testimony to the power and authority of God–places which are hostile to human life could also remind us that there are still sacred spaces where only divine feet can tread. Personally, I would want to maintain that there is a goodness to the physical creation even though it has been frustrated by sin. I think this post also dovetails nicely with your earlier theme of 'liberation' since Christ's work will ultimately free the entire cosmos, not just the human sector.
Anyway, just a FYI for whomever may be interested in this sort of thing; my supervisor, David Brown is a fairly big name in the theology of beauty/aesthetics (the field tends to focus upon the arts rather than the natural world, btw), another person to check out would be David Bentley Hart (warning: notoriously difficult to read). Should anyone be interested in reading more about this field, they should check out Brown's 5 vol. work with Oxford Uni Press or Hart's 'Beauty of the Infinite'.
You can browse Hart's book for free at Google books:
http://tinyurl.com/yhyh9k9
And Brown's 'God and Enchantment of Place' is on there as well:
http://tinyurl.com/ylbqfgg
Also, while I'm at it…did I mention that St. Mary's college, St. Andrews is offering a handful of Ph.D. scholarships to celebrate our 600th year anniversary? I cannot stress how rare this is for UK schools, so if you're interested, please let me know asap. For more info:
http://tinyurl.com/yk4wa9u
We have a postgraduate program dedicated specifically to the theology of aesthetics, and Prof. Brown would be a good person to speak with if this happens to interest any budding scholars out there: http://tinyurl.com/yhar3tj
Browder, keep up the good work…I'm loving these posts man.
I didn't really want this to be about natural revelation, etc. I just wanted to "call a thing what it is". What is beautiful to man is, more often than not, death. And what is ugly to man typically eternal benefit.
Browder I love ya,
It is totally true, the shiny things we think are beautiful often turn and punch us in the face.
"His chosen subject is the philosophy of beauty and aesthetics. For me, beauty conjures up majestic images of mountain ranges, great oceans, forests, and natural wonders. "
wow. Was I alone in imagining something more um… erotic? and what does that mean?
On another tangent…
In contrast we want to see evil as something unnatractive and ugly. In fact evil usually looks shiney, beautiful and attractive. seductive. like goodness.
david do you have any thoughts about how this plays into what you are observing here? I am not thinking of anything i read about god in the bible as "beautiful" (irregardless of the song "beautiful savior"). in revelation and the rest of the bible the sight of god does not seem to be beautiful as my as evoke a response of falling prostate before it.
i would be interested to hear your thoughts here.
i am saying here, that beyond the song of solomon and the forbidden fruit, i am seeing a dearth of aestetics in scripture. I am surprised I did not notice this rather conspicuous absence before.
why is that?
and yes. I confess to preferring to visualize christ as someone not unattractive.