Beauty and salvation

[Owen Jones]

It is not God's mercy that saves us. Mercy is the precondition to salvation. We are saved by His Beauty. We else can we go to find this? By Beauty I do not just mean the externals. These are pointers to the inward Beauty of a soul that is brought to a state of humble contrition and union with God. But the fact that we have the pointers is a timeless reminder. Yes, theology matters.

[Father David Moser]

It is not God's mercy that saves us. Mercy is the precondition to salvation. We are saved by His Beauty. ... Yes, theology matters.

We are not saved by beauty - rather we are saved by grace. If we define beauty as "the image and likeness of God" then we can say that grace produces beauty in us. Thus just as mercy is a precondition to salvation, so also one can say that beauty is the result or at least the "side effect" of salvation. But I think that the theology of the Church (not to mention the scripture) is quite clear that we are saved by grace.

Fr David Moser

[M.C. Steenberg]

We are not saved by beauty - rather we are saved by grace. If we define beauty as "the image and likeness of God" then we can say that grace produces beauty in us. Thus just as mercy is a precondition to salvation, so also one can say that beauty is the result or at least the "side effect" of salvation. But I think that the theology of the Church (not to mention the scripture) is quite clear that we are saved by grace.

Dear Father David, Owen, and others,

It might be interesting to discuss this further (perhaps in its own thread - or to rekindle one of the older threads on beauty). I think Owen is referring to beauty in a different sense than you are, Father David; and I think you are referring to grace differently than he. And there is quite a strong tradition in Orthodox (particularly Russian Orthodox) spiritual exegesis on beauty as salvific -- part of the very act of theosis as vision, sight.

As I say, I think some of the difference here is in how the words are being used by each of you. It would be interesting to discuss further!

INXC, Matthew

[John Charmley]

Dear Father David, Owen, and others,

It might be interesting to discuss this further (perhaps in its own thread - or to rekindle one of the older threads on beauty). I think Owen is referring to beauty in a different sense than you are, Father David; and I think you are referring to grace differently than he. And there is quite a strong tradition in Orthodox (particularly Russian Orthodox) spiritual exegesis on beauty as salvific -- part of the very act of theosis as vision, sight.

As I say, I think some of the difference here is in how the words are being used by each of you. It would be interesting to discuss further!

INXC, Matthew

Dear Matthew, et al.,

Yes, I think it would be interesting to explore this further; I have been intrigued and stimulated by Owen's comments on this before, but I don't think we have had a real discussion on it for a while.

I am struck by the resonance with that secular poet, Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

not least since Owen's comments might take this into the transcendent sphere?

In Christ,


John

[Father David Moser]

I got to thinking a bit about this topic and went back and pulled a couple of articles on the topic as well that I hope will be helpful to the discussion. The first is an editorial from Orthodox America that is titled "Beauty Will Save the World" (http://www.roca.org/OA/143-144/143a.htm) The second is a transcript of a talk by Dr Kurt Sander given at the Russian Orthodox Church Musician's Conference in 1999 entitled "Liturgical Harmony: The Communicative Role of Music in Orthodox Worship" (http://www.nku.edu/~sanderk/LiturgicalHarmony.htm). In his talk, Dr Sander introduces a second element that relates to beauty in the writings of the fathers called "the sublime". I hope that these two essays will be able to generate more ideas for discussion.

Fr David Moser

[Maria Mahoney]

I believe these are both the focus of contemplation of divine essences in created things that leads to the Apophatic contemplation wherein we are deified.


The Philokalia
Volume Two

St. Theodoros:

"...if we have to use the senses, we should use them in order to
grasp the Creator through His creation, seeing Him reflected
in created things as the sun is reflected in water, since in their
inner beings they are in varying degrees images of the primal cause
of all." P. 45.

In Christ,
Maria

[Lourens]

Fathers, Gentlemen, Maria,

Please allow me to offer some thoughts on this subject, bearing in mind that it is not without reason that I sign my posts as “learner.”

Our Lord’s dear friend John describes Him as being full of grace and truth.

“[W]e beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14.)

Thus the evangelist describes the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That grace and truth are inseparably linked in salvation is confirmed in the verses following:

“And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ “ (John 1:16, 17). (Saved by grace; set free by truth.)

His fullness was the very glory of God, “[f]or it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;” in him, “[w]ho is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15, 19).

Now, when Paul states that we have all gone wrong and are far from God, he puts it this way:


There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:10-12, 23).

These very verses imply that when the sinner becomes righteous; when he understands; when he seeks after God; when he does good, and sins no more----then the glory of God is restored. We receive from His fullness, grace for grace; we are changed into His likeness, form one degree of glory to an ever increasing degree of glory.

How is this fullness and likeness manifested? In the Beauty of Holiness.

There is the unmistakable purity of heart, or cleanness of spirit that manifests in the lives of true worshipers. For to worship God in spirit and in truth, is to worship him in the beauty of holiness.

Yes, beauty flows from salvation, but salvation, also, flows from beauty. Does the Apostle not speak of the beauty of a quiet and gentle spirit (in women) that pleases God; that can “win…men for Christ by the way they live without saying anything, ” when they “see how pure and reverent their lives are.” (1 Peter 3:1-4)

Grace, Truth, and Beauty portray the Holiness of God, which is also His Presence; His Glory; with salvation in His wings.. It is God Who saves us. And, if God is Love, we may also say, Love saves us.

Love and Truth is complete in Grace and Beauty. It is the fullness of God’s glory.

And we are to be like Him.

What mercy! What mercy! What mercy!

Respectfully,

Learner.

[John Charmley]

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,


First, can I thank 'Learner' for his words, and for directing us to some texts that pertain to this theme, and for his comments.

Reading, as I am at the moment, St. Cyril's Commentary on St. John, I find he has this to say on John 1:14:

Having said that the Word was made Flesh, that is Man, and having brought Him down to brotherhood with things made and in bondage, he preserves even thus His Divine dignity intact and shews Him again full of the own Nature of the Father inherent to Him. For the Divine Nature has truly stability in Itself, not enduring to suffer change to ought else, but rather always unvarying and abiding in Its own Endowments. Hence even though the Evangelist says that the Word was made Flesh, he yet affirms that It was not overcome by the infirmities of the flesh, nor fell from Its pristine Might and Glory, when It clad Itself in our frail and inglorious body. For we saw, he says, His Glory surpassing that of others, and such as one may confess befits the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father: for full was He of grace and truth... having no measured grace, as though another gave it, but perfect and true as in the Perfect, that is, not imported nor supplied from without in the way of accession, but essentially in-existent, and the fruit of the Father's essential Property passing Naturally to the Son Who is of Him.

What was assumed in the Incarnation was, as we are taught, healed, which we take to mean restored, as in Ezekiel 28: 12-15


12 Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, `Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created.
14 You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.

Our Incarnate Lord came to redeem us, and thus to restore us the beauty of holiness; we were made in the image of God, and through His Son that image, which is true beauty, shall be restored. It is our destiny as Christians.

Perhaps on such a reading, Keats was more Orthodox than he knew?

In Christ,

John

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

There is a short book by Constantine Cavarnos called Spiritual Beauty. It's to the point and helpful.

The Russian discussion of beauty during the 19th c is also interesting because it ties in with so many of the themes we deal with today. For someone like Dostoevsky, Christ is the image of Beauty for mankind. But this was said in the context of a world which was rapidly losing track of Christ & becoming increasingly entranced by a purely human kind of false-beauty. Dostoevsky often portrayed, in his written characters, this false beauty, its allurement and lying nature. Dostoevsky stayed far from allegorical techniques in his writing but he consciously drew his characters to encompass the drama of western culture- the struggle of the two beauties if you want.

Dostoevsky also often drew his characters by placing these two levels together like placing one kind of coloured glass over another. Thus the young prostitute Sonya Marmeladov in Crime & Punishment has a deep & humble beauty to her; but the arrogant & manipulative Peter Stepanovich in The Devils has an allure or 'beauty' that few seem able to resist.

Although this comes close to the modern theme that anyone 'lowborn' is automatically made beautiful the opposite is Dostoevsky's intent. He knows that beauty or ugliness is not defined by class or more profoundly it is not really produced by our environment. Rather it is produced by what occurs within the soul and the constant choices a person makes.

Dostoevsky artistically portrays this however on the larger canvas of a modern society enticed by and constantly trying to create a new society founded on the principle of false beauty. He knows that the moral division between his written characters is not identical to the actual complexity of people within society. But yet his art is the perfect tool to express Dostoevsky's point that within our society we have a struggle between two very different kinds of beauty.

For Dostoevsky the beauty of humility & compassion as represented by Christ is precisely the only beauty that can shine through and save the false beauty of the world. Thus, "beauty will save the world."

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Lourens]

Father Raphael,

I have found the idea that there exists "a struggle between two very different kinds of beauty" a grand one, that has opened up a whole new treasure chamber of insight to me.

Indeed, there is true beauty---the Beauty of Truth; and there is the false---the make-believe, or pretense of the lie. Whole industries exist to propagate the latter.

Thank you for unlocking a door to more light.

Respectfully,

Learner.