On one level, Beauty seems to be nothing but order, and variations of order. This is why trees are beautiful; every tree has a different growth pattern, but each tree is substantially the same as other trees of its kind, has the same geometry, repeats the same angles, and trees of a different kind have an entirely different geometry of growth. Absolute chaos has no beauty; neither does a total stasis. Then there are things which just seem to have a deeper meaning, and speak to the soul of things beyond its vision; mountains, the sky, the sea, fields of flowers, etc. Beauty is an introduction to the being of God, the great symphony in Three movements, of which all the created order is but grace notes. We know the Creator through his creation, and know that He is good. No matter what pains we may have suffered, on bright days, or even grey days, with their very different kind of somber beauty, or in the still heart of the night, we may enter into a kind of deep mystical gladness, and know in our hearts that there is meaning in all this, and that Pain is not the soul of the Universe. All created things spring from this deep fountain of essential being; Beauty flows out from the Throne of the All-Holy Trinity, the Godhead dwells resplendent in Love, the rejoicing of Pure Being.
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If in our fallen world we have so much awe inspiring beauty in nature I wonder what it must have been like before the fall? Do you think that creation had a different aspect at that time...a different quality to its beauty than what we see and experience now?
I refer you to the post of 17 Sept., 2007 on "The Ochlophobist", where these things were discussed in detail; but yes, I believe the World as first created was different. God pronounced His Creation to be "very good"; there are many aspects of the present-day world that don't fit that description. Chesterton compared the Postlapsarian World with a shipwreck; all the beauties we see around us are remnants of the World before it was broken, things rescued from the wreck, as it were. The beauties which remain have the purpose of directing our gaze to God, and motivating us to return to him, from whom all beauty springs, but of course, in the fallen world, we have always the choice to use things for either good or evil. If Beauty can be as a signpost directing us to God, it can also function as chains binding us to the Earth; all the World-worshiping contemporary theologians have really come to love corruption because of the beauty that is still attached to it, but in the end that beauty will perish, and all that will be left is corruption. The trick is to love God, and only through Him the World that was, and will be yet again, and not be so caught up in the transient world, but to love it with the love of God, who seeks to save it. In the end, the World will not be totally destroyed, but purified; we want to be in the position of loving the gold that remains, not the dross which is consumed.
Thanks so much for your response. I hadn't thought of it in that way before but it makes a lot of sense. I love the analogy of the shipwreck...think i'll do some more reading up on Chesterton.
Dear Garasanin:
Happy Reading! I like to direct people to Chesterton, although he is not Orthodox, because he is so good at introducing modern people to pre-modern ways of thinking; to my mind, this is a prerequisite for truly interfacing with the mind of the Fathers; so much contemporary theological scholarship, (even in Orthodoxy) is involved in distancing us from them! The shipwreck analogy is in "Orthodoxy"; others among my favorites include "What's Wrong With the World", the novels "The Man Who Was Thursday" and "The Napoleon of Notting Hill" (his funniest book, available from Dover Books). "The Outline of Sanity" is a wonderful book, now available from IHS Press. They have several other Chesterton books, as well as some of Hilare Belloc's powerful works (to my mind, the best pure essayist of the 20th Century). "Heretics" is good, if you are familiar enough with Edwardian English culture to be able to understand the issues he is dealing with; his "Saint Thomas Aquinas" I still like, even though I no longer essentially agree with the central thesis. It contains many of his most potent epigrams, and of course, Father Brown is always good, and available most anywhere; also, check out a volume of his poems, if you aren't tired of them already.
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