Anachronism: Beauty & The ArtsSample

Heaven is the beholding of Absolute Beauty

Much of the joy and hope of Heaven stems from the fact that God’s earthly creatures get to behold His Beauty, directly without intermediation. He occupies the central, illuminating place in the eternal city, and every glory and wonder of that place (jeweled gates, gold streets) exists in an ornamental and secondary relationship to Him. Beholding the Lamb That Was Slain in heaven is more than visual confirmation of the excellence of the work of Christ. It combines an understanding of His divine accomplishments with the sheer Beauty that His demonstrated obedience represents. His appearance is Beautiful in part because is resonates with Truth. 

Similarly, creating art is not simply about delighting the senses. As in the example of Christ in Heaven, Beauty is not only a function of outward form. In fact, simply reproducing a beautiful thing reduces it because a representation is always less than the thing itself. No human work of art is capable of capturing all of the sensory characteristics of a real-world item. However, this is where the work of the artist mirrors the work of the Master Artist. God both creates and embodies Truth and Beauty, absolutely, not relatively or subjectively.  The artist, bearing God’s image, also creates works that reflect both Truth and Beauty. Truly beautiful things are beautiful in part because either in their composition or their perception they are aligned with something that is transcendentally true.

Consider an example of the partnership of truth in the beauty from daily life. A beautiful face is made so because its structure and appearance are in some way more closely aligned to the functions and purpose of its elements. Eyes are more beautiful because of their ‘eyeness’: open and ready to receive reflected light, as opposed to eyes that are swollen shut or obscured with cataracts or illnesses that impair their function. Their beauty is inseparable from the reality of their purpose.

As we seek to live lives that glorify our Lord, and fully manifest the image deo, we must strive to appreciate and experience the Truth and Beauty we find around us, not only in nature, but in the works of Man.

Prayer: Father, help guide me through this day to better understand Beauty in this life, that it may further inflame a deep longing to be in your courts beholding the eternal feast of Your Beauty in Heaven.

Music: Ennui

Eccl.: 1:1-11

This piece begins with a solemn and listless viola solo that evokes the French word ‘Ennui’: a uniquely restless boredom. The middle section is more restrained before the boredom begins to overflow and the first melancholy grows more desperate.