A Grace of Sense - theological aesthetics

"You are not to bear false witness against your neighbor." What is this? Answer: We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light. (Luther: The Small Catechism) To speak well of our neighbors, that is the point of the seventh commandment (or the eighth, according to the Orthodox or Reformed reading). There are several aspects of interest here. To begin with, a good reputation is something invaluable for a person. To lose face has always been a disaster, but never has it been such a threat as in the internet era. To ruin someone's reputation has never been as simple to do as it is today. Once suspicion is leveled (about, say, sexual harassment or economic dishonesty) no explanations will suffice to clear one's honor. Even when the allegation is proved to be entirely ...

"We know God by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and governmentof the universe, since that universe is before our eyeslike a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: God’s eternal power and divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1,20." (The Belgic Confession § 2) As a point of departure in this post there is a quotation from a classic Reformed text. Reformed Church is readily thought as the anti-aesthetic branch of Christianity. The Reformed do not have the liturgical richness of the Catholic Church, the musical heritage of Lutheranism, not to mention the visual imagery of the eastern Orthodox Christianity. That notwithstanding, Reformed theology maintains that the beauty of the universe is a way to attain knowledge about God. Jean Calvin himself ( Institutes 1.5.1.) spoke about the "workmanship of the universe", that eventually compels even stupid people to s...