'Beauty will save the world' - Dostoevsky

[Anthony Dawe]

I wonder what this hopeful sentiment means in an Orthodox context? Is this beauty referred to the glory of Christ's resurrection which has the capability to transform human lives and, indeed, the whole of creation? Perhaps the statement is not merely sentimental; but, of necessity, purely logical because the antithesis is too terrible to contemplate.

Can anyone help me better understand what this noble statement means?

Anthony

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

I wonder what this hopeful sentiment means in an Orthodox context? Is this beauty referred to the glory of Christ's resurrection which has the capability to transform human lives and, indeed, the whole of creation? Perhaps the statement is not merely sentimental; but, of necessity, purely logical because the antithesis is too terrible to contemplate.

Can anyone help me better understand what this noble statement means?

Anthony

I had completely forgotten where this line of Dostoevsky actually came from until I looked it up. It comes from The Idiot where Prince Myshkin says, "I believe the world will be saved by beauty.' I am a believer because Christianity is that beauty."

Dostoevsky is notoriously difficult to categorize but basically his ideas about beauty come from his concern about man. Dostoevsky has his own views- and very strong ideas- on aesthetics & society. But these always are a reflection of his deeper concern with man preserving his humanity. In turn this is always for Dostoevsky set within the larger context of a surrounding world increasingly cast astray in terms of human values. Beauty will save man, because for Dostoevsky, beauty is a descriptive term for the person who is human.

Undoubtedly Dostoevsky ties these human values together with Christianity and specifically Orthodoxy. But I think it would be a mistake to think he means this in the Church-centred way we mean this.

For Dostoevsky Christ is the image of the good man (eg Prince Myshkin in the Idiot). But at the same time he sees Christ as a moral image for man best understood by the Orthodox Church rather than as the Head of His Body members of which we must become in order to be saved.

It's probably not fair to say that Dostoevsky would have denied the reality of the Church. But still his stress is moral and social rather than ecclesiological.

Thus there is constantly an ambiguity in how Dostoevsky sees Orthodoxy and this affects what we might think of his ideas on beauty. In one way these ideas are human and social in a profound sense which allows someone Orthodox to take them into account. But when those who are Orthodox do this I think they stretch Dostoevsky's actual focus.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Anthony Dawe]

Dear Father Vereshack,

Your blessing.

Thank you for placing this quote of Dostoevsky in context, as I notice the phrase frequently quoted without reference to the text from which it originates.

What interests me is the ambiguity that exists in Dostoevsky's treatment of beauty within a moral (i.e. the accepted mores of a given society at a given period of history) framework. As you say he is concerned with trying to outline the 'good', the 'human'; in society which is a type of 'beauty' that, in existential terms is salvific because such people- or the actions they are capable of performing- further the greater, common good. This appears very ambiguous to my mind since pursuing 'enlightened' social policies - i.e. policies intended to primote a betterment of individual and group life in relation to their physical well-being; is generous, and one would think very Christian- doing as one would be done by- but doesn't bear much relation to beauty in an aesthethic sense. Perhaps in the original Russian there is more than one word for beauty which has become limited in translation.

In terms of human existance Prince Myshkin would, therefore, in relation to his own soul and that of others be participating in a positive, creative, process of existance which, at the historical period in question, would have also included the means of accessing spiritual and aesthetic beauty in the form of the Orthodox Church. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ as physically unpresent head of the church in this temporal life was still to be found present in the form of the icon. In a 'human', 'good' feudal system the aesthetic beauty of the church and the beauty contained therein was preserved for all of the 'catholic' faithful- i.e. all of society as an integrated whole. This might be analogous to C.S. Lewis' idea of being led ever upward by the faith to a point of human existance, both individually and socially, which was impassable in this mortal life.

During this Lenten period the characterization of Christ as a 'moral image' for humans to emulate is something we, presumably, are all striving for. Again I remain at a loss as to the beauty of Christ's life and death. His teaching with relation to the society of His time was akin to Dostoevsky's hope for actions which would bring relief to the poor, but in the beatitudes there remains a blessing given rather than a call for immediate social change. He recognizes and blesses the striving and sufferings of 'good' people; but, as would become manifest in His own experience, humility was to embrace brutal suffering and torture to enable eternal beauty to overcome the terror of death. Certainly at the Transfiguration and in the person of the resurrected Christ we see aesthetic beauty, but in the crucifixion we see only suffering and apparent failure. Or do we? I have always been struck by the figure of St. Longinus who standing at the foot of the cross was able to see the actual reality of the Son of God. Surely this was awesome beauty- but must have been a gift given to the pure in heart. To be actually able to see within the physical reality of death the beauty of Truth and to immediately recognize this truth must be a magnificent gift.

To return to a more theological level of enquiry- where is the beauty in suffering unless we are granted the gift to understand that suffering, and is there any redemptive quality to the suffering and pain of humanity?

Anthony.

[Father David Moser]

I'd like to make a comment here in the spirit of our own Matthew Steenberg and remind everyone of the "search" function of Monachos. Just hit the "search" button on the header menu and type in the topic you want to talk about. If there is already a discussion thread, there may be many posts which can enlighten your point and make it all the more poignant (making you look more brilliant).

This particular comment would fit quite well under the already established (but recently unused) topic of "Beauty and Salvation (http://www.monachos.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3559&highlight=Beauty)"

Anyway, just a reminder of this Monachos resource provided at no extra charge for the enrichment of our conversations.

Fr David Moser