It's rather obvious from nature that things are not equally beautiful. Compare, for instance, the paving slab mentioned in the previous post, to a flower. Or yet again compare that flower to a carefully arranged bouquet or, again, the bouquet to a well cultivated botanical garden. It's not that the single flower, plucked fresh from the bush, is not beautiful in an of itself; of course, it can and should be admired for those qualities it possesses. Yet to add the imagination, the creativity, and the skill, as well as the greater quantity and variation of flowers into producing an elegant bouquet, reveals beauty greater still, both in quantity and quality. A botanical garden is even more glorious in proportion, displaying an even greater wealth of variety; each component combined to complement another for the sake of being pleasing to the senses. Beauty appears to us in increments, in order that we might experience it in differing amounts and qualities. The purpose of beaut...

I mentioned in an earlier post how knowing the reason behind something's existence can influence our experience of it. I use the example of my wife cooking a meal. I said that the knowledge that she has gone out of her way to cook me a meal I am particularly fond of, enhances the aesthetic experience of eating said meal. I called this tasting the love. There are two elements of beauty at work. The aesthetic beauty of the food which interacts with the taste buds on my tongue that my brain interprets as pleasurable sensation in my mouth is one element. The knowledge that the food exists because another person has counted me as valuable enough to warrant such an undertaking as cooking it, is the morally beautiful experience. And one certainly informs the other. A good meal will always taste good, and knowing my wife loves and values me will always feel great, but the opportunity to experience the meal because of the love is an experience beyond either individually. And the two t...

“What does a culture do when it no longer has a way of cleansing guilt because it has made men their own gods? It must silence the conscience, in the vain hope that then inner peace will be found. There are various strategies for this: - Create ideologies that make sin appear good. - Drag everyone into the sin. - Defame, shun, and persecute everyone who gives voice to his conscience. If we look at the global sexual revolution, we can see that this is exactly what is happening.” As a Christian, it feels increasingly difficult to go against the grain of modern culture. Every conversation that expresses traditional Christian beliefs and values seems to be more and more awkward and met with more and more resistance and even anger. The fear that one day soon I or someone I know might say something that results in suffering great loss because the popular worldview won’t legally tolerate the opposing ideas Christianity offers about what life is all about, looms large. On the wh...

As I touched on in the first post, I believe that there are two elements to beauty; two aspects of it; two forms it takes. I describe these aspects as moral beauty and aesthetic beauty. I’ve chosen these words specifically, in order to help articulate the depth and diversity of beauty. Moral beauty, as I’ve called it, refers to the intent and purpose of a thing’s existence. Moral beauty is not tangible, or experienced sensorily, but is conceptual in nature. Morality is the concern of the principles that govern right and wrong and naturally assumes that right and wrong exist as objective realities. If something is moral, we might also say it is good, or honest, or just, or true. Morality by nature is concerned with the welfare, prosperity, promotion, pleasure and satisfaction, primarily of human people, who can decide for or against it, but also for the rest of the created order. I’ve used this word to describe this first aspect of beauty because beauty also has a moral aspect ...

Have you ever wondered why God created the world? Have you ever wondered why God created mankind, why He created you? God exists before time, perfectly perfect in His existence. Neither corrupt or deficient in any conceivable way. Yet, God decides to create; to make. And not just to create any old type of creation, either. No, he created very specifically, a creature, man, who could respond to Him, to know Him, and imitate Him in many ways. As Genesis 1:26 would say, to bear His image. Now, why did God do that? Well, I think that it was because God had an accurate and appropriate appreciation of his own inherent glory. He knew and understood so deeply all the magnificent qualities (divine attributes) he possessed, that he felt compelled to share them. Having no one else other than himself to share them with, he created man, a being that was capable of experiencing those divine qualities in a way that brought man joy and satisfaction as he experienced them. Elaine Scarry in the o...

About 10 years ago I had a friend with whom I am no longer in contact with. During our short-lived friendship, we spent a lot of time together, attempting to figure out what life was all about. Enjoying and considering books, films, music, photography, fine art and time together, we were attempting to find meaning and purpose in our human existence. Even though we used these same modes of discovery, we had different perspectives and different aims, and different ideas of what we thought our purposes might be. This friend once described me as a hunter of beauty. She noticed my particular preoccupation with things I considered beautiful, and how I was -  rather selfishly, so she thought - drawn towards beautiful things and experiences. She felt I was distracted from more important issues that might have been more worthy of my attention, such as social justice and various other ethical responsibilities. Having had a decade to reflect on this - not quite derogatory, not q...