October 21 2008
I was finishing dinner with Jenny and Mateo last weekend when the conversation topic turned to beauty and our perception of it. At one point, someone asked "But how are we defining beauty?" We sat there with wrinkled foreheads and squinted eyes trying to come up with the best definition we could. We moved on from there, never actually coming up with one.
So before I try launching into a analytical blog post about it, I'll turn the question to you:
How do you define beauty?
2 comments:
After fighting the urge to give you a snarky, librarianish answer, I have to confess: I don't know.
It has something to do with an experience of the senses, except for when it has to do with an experience of the heart.
It may have to do with color, and balance, and the sublime.
It seems often to relate to worship: appreciation for the work of God in something, physical or otherwise. Maybe that's why I connect the idea with the sublime.
I want to say I know it when I see it, but that's not true--I often DON'T see it, even when it's in front of my face.
And I want to say it is in the eye of the beholder--that it must be acknowledged to be truly beautiful. But that would be sad if it were true. Unless God is what calls thigns beautiful, because he's the one that has the capacity to appreciate all beauty.
So maybe beauty is the evidence of God's delight in his creation.
Not a great answer, but there you go.
oh my goodness, i've been intellectually kneading this question for a while. i'm still confused when i think about it...and there's a lot of grey and mystery. and i could probably write a ten page response but i won't. all that being said, here's my answer:
beauty is anything and everything that glorifies god.
and:
glorifying god is the point/goal of beauty.
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