A Grace of Sense - theological aesthetics

  There are several possible approaches to the art among Christians. In the following, I tend to draft them in a cursory manner. 1. Art is harmful for a Christian This extreme view has been promoted by some pietist or monastic movements. The bleakest parts of Leo Tolstoy's aesthetics may suggest this view. Art generally, and music and dance in particular, arouse emotions that provoke lust and lasciviousness. Even when that is not the case, artistic figures and niceties distract the soul from its concentration to prayer and spirituality. To sum, there is nothing good or useful for a Christian in the arts. 2. Art is irrelevant to spirituality According to this view, arts are not bad in themselves. In fact, they may be considered as gifts of God, but they have no spiritual value. They do not belong to the spiritual realm, their virtues are mundane. In that regard art is similar to politics or furniture. 3. Art is a good hobby for a Christian A human being needs pleasurable pastime act...

What is the factor that unites the diverse books of the Bible? What has the Pentateuch common with the Apocalypse, or the Song of Songs with the Pauline epistles? Martin Luther determined the justification of the sinner to be the doctrine that joins all the books of the Bible together, written on every page of it. As persuasive as this view is, it is hardly tenable. Indeed, there are many pages of the Scripture that do not mention the justification of the sinner. Justification is a good nominee for the uniting bond between the various texts of the Bible, but not an entirely satisfying one. I argue that the thing that joins all the literary genres and individual books of the Bible is their aesthetic character. This is not a highly original statement, but rather something very obvious. The aesthetic character of the Bible can be perceived along the following traits: Musicality. Many texts of the Bible are made for singing, Psalms in particular. There are many other songs, too: in the Pro...

Photo: Timo Rasimus The Islamic tradition tells that some people have converted to Islam on account of the sheer beauty of the Arabic of the Qur'an. Lacking the knowledge of the language,  ignorant of the teachings of the Prophet, they have nevertheless grasped the spiritual depth of the text (or, rather, recitation). This kind of religious awakening has hardly other than an aesthetic nature. There is neither theological doctrine nor moral obligation involved. Something strikes a person, changing his or her world at once, and one does not know what it is (a counterpart for the aesthetic nescio quid ). A similar story is told within Eastern Christianity. The conversion of Russians to Christianity happened through (or with a little help of) an aesthetic experience, according to the 12th century Nestor's Chronicle . The envoys of the Prince Vladimir reported, after attending the service in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople: "We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth....

In the ancient Greece, humor, playfulness, and jokes were considered as something proper to children and slaves but not appropriate for free men. Plato wanted to drive away the comedians from his Republic. The Christian Church inherited this view on humor. Accordingly, laughter was deemed as superfluous, if not sinful. Jesus is not told to have laughed, and in monastic rules (e.g. the Rule of St. Benedict) laughter is prohibited for monks and nuns.  It is worth noting that laughter in the Bible has usually the touch of scorn, as "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision" (Ps. 2,4). Even God himself seems occasionally lack the sense of humor when He asks: "Why did Sarah laugh?" (Gen. 18,13) Later, Thomas Aquinas had an interesting discussion on humor in Summa Theologiae II-II, quaestio 168 . He asks, whether the "lack of play" ( defectus ludi ) can be viewed as sin. Typically, Aquinas begins with an argument against play and laughter...

"Les offrandes oubliées" (1930) is a major achievement of a newly graduated composer, a work that points out the essential traits of Messiaen's music: his preoccupation with rhythm, his modal language (Messiaen is not tonal or atonal composer, but modal) and his Catholic Christian faith. These features, with the later extensive use of birdsong, prevailed throughout Messiaen's career until his death in 1992. Messiaen commented on his faith in an interview in 1961 as follows: "God for me is manifest. and my conception of sacred music derives from this conviction. God being present in all things, music dealing with theological subjects can and must be extremely varied. The Catholic religion is a real fairy-story, with this difference, it is all true. I have therefore, in the words of Ernest Hello, tried to produce 'a music that touches all things without ceasing to touch God'. But, if my music is a spontaneous act of faith, without premeditation, it is by...

Roman de la Rose , or "The Romance of the Rose" was arguably the most read book in late medieval Europe. It is a courtly romance manifesting troubadour world view and suggestive of the erotic poetry of Decamerone.  The French allegorical poem tells about the pursuit of a woman and the final enjoyment of her favors. The book has two authors. Guillaume de Lorris wrote the first part in twelfth century and Jean de Meun continued in the thirteenth century. Generally speaking, the first part is still innocent, but the stanzas written by Jean de Meun are more graphic in their sexual imagery. No wonder that Roman de la Rose alarmed church officials and aroused heated discussions. When the chancellor of the University of Paris, Jean Gerson (1363-1429), one of the foremost theologians of his day, decided to enter into the discussion on  Roman de la Rose in the beginning of the 15th century,   the book had been around for a hundred years. Perhaps the book had not achieved an ep...

I browsed in vain three philosophical  internet encyclopedias ( The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie and L'Encyclopédie philosophique ) to find an entry on joy ( Freude, joie ). Joy is apparently not a major philosophical concern, but something subordinate to bigger questions.  There seems to be two philosophical approaches to joy. In the first one, it is associated with general discussion on emotions. In the western tradition, emotions stand for an inchoate or lower form of understanding, or even something opposite to the reason. On the other side, joy is connected to pleasure. Pleasure for its part stands for something sensuous, which again introduces the question whether gratification of senses is tantamount to happiness - and whether happiness is the ultimate goal of human existence. Religion in general and Christianity in particular provides a deeper understanding of joy. The Christian gospel, euangelion, is "the good new...