Delight in Creation: the aesthetic imperative and Robert Jenson
Robert W. Jenson writes: We too may enjoy the world in this purely aesthetic fashion. We may do so because to be human is to participate in the triune conversation that is finally pure music and so pure delight, and because all creatures are the matter of this conversation. Unbelieving “ecological” reflection always seems to end with one of two dour possibilities: other creatures are to be valued because of their possible usefulness to us, or we are nihilistically to value other creatures as we value ourselves. But when we acknowledge our place in God, we may perceive a better way: we may after all expand the second “great commandment” to include not only our human neighbors but all our fellow creatures, if only we modulate to the aesthetic mode: “You shall delight in each creature as in yourself.” What we may do about Pleiades and Orion is have fun with them, even from our distance. This delight can take many forms, from the writing of sonnets to lying on the grass staring at the...