I wrote a guest article for CreationSwap entitled Toward the Beautiful on the metaphysical underpinnings of beauty and how that relates to the role of an artist in the work of creating art. Check it out here.
Philosophy
2
Aug 11
Art and a Deal with the Devil
I happened across an interesting insight yesterday while sitting in a waiting room. I have never read Faust, and so I opened it up on my phone to start reading. I have a fairly vague notion of the overall plot of the book, and so when I started reading I was unsure if I was reading some kind of preface, the wrong book, or something else entirely.
I discovered that Faust begins with a prelude in which the play-house Manager, the Poet (who writes the plays) and the Merry-Andrew (a jester) are talking about their upcoming play, (the actual plot of Faust) a first for them on the German stage. The Manager is nervous because he believes the Germans to be well-read, and to thus expect a spectacle that has never been seen before. Therefore, he desires a play that is fresh and new, something that will set the crowd ablaze with passion and delight, enough that throngs are rushing and shoving to procure tickets. In anticipation, he turns to the Poet to deliver. Continue reading →
28
Jul 11
Love Wins (no, really it does)
The Divine Eros Defeats the Earthly Eros by Giovanni Baglione
This past week I worked my way through Rob Bell’s ‘Love Wins.’
I realize I am rather late to the party, and, to belabor the metaphor, I was actually quite content to not even attend the party at all, as I find most books written by prominent contemporary mega-church pastors to be dreadfully boring with nothing terribly interesting to say.
Love Wins was certainly no exception. To be fair, I was not expecting much. A few years ago I attempted to read Velvet Elvis and simply could not bring myself to stay awake long enough to read it.
Not even half of it.
Obviously, my previous sentence is slightly tongue in cheek- while it is actually true that I only managed about 40% of the book, the use of a single statement offset from a paragraph for emphatic effect is meant to be demonstrative of the (near) entirety of Rob Bell’s writing style.
Excellent point. Continue reading →
23
Jul 11
The Art of Purgatory
To course across more kindly waters now,
my talent’s little vessel lifts her sails,
leaving behind herself a sea so cruel;
and what I sing will be that second kingdom,
in which the human soul is cleansed of sin,
becoming worthy of ascent to Heaven.1
Dante’s Divine Comedy is perhaps best known for its first part- Inferno- in which Dante is led by the poet Virgil through Hell. Less familiar is Purgatorio, the second part in Dante’s continuing saga; yet in this kingdom of cleansing we find a profound approach to beauty and art.
While Dante certainly understood Purgatory to be an actual reality, Purgatorio is nevertheless additionally an allegory, which is immediately signaled by one constant fact: Dante is still alive. It is into this realm of purgation and refining where the crooked loves and affections of the soul are straightened out and purified that Dante discovers the way to heaven that lies open even to those who still cling to this mortal coil. Purgatorio becomes a description of this life now, and as Dante encounters the art of Purgatory, he encounters the entrance to the contemplation of beauty, which leads ultimately to the love of God. Continue reading →
- Dante, Purgatorio, Canto 1.1-3 ↩
15
Jun 11
The Golden Bird
This installment of my church fathers paraphrases comes from St. John Chrysostom.
St. John was born in Antioch around A.D 347. In his early life he was engaged in classical studies, but the influence of the bishop Meletius caused him to turn to the ascetic and religious life. He began as a lector in Antioch, later became a deacon and around 386 was ordained to the priesthood.
In 397 John was appointed to the bishopric of Constantinople, which would mark a turning point in his life. Up to that point he had desired the monastic life in seclusion, but was suddenly thrust into a prominent position in one of the largest and most important cities in the empire. For John it was a very difficult transition, as he was forced into a quagmire of politics. The church at Constaninople was in need of reform, and John began with what would later be called ‘sweeping the stairs from the top.’ The reaction was mixed. Chrysostom was unsparing in his railing against the extravagances of the rich, and in due course drew their ire. However, he was also incredibly eloquent, and the people of Constantinople were enthralled which he preaching, sometimes even applauding him in church. This eloquence earned him the surname ‘Chrysostom,’ which means ‘golden-mouthed.’ Continue reading →
17
Jan 11
The Distance Between Us is The Closer We Become
++
Love, which is the highest level of union, only takes root in the growing independence of the lovers; the union between God and the world reveals, in the very nearness it creates between these two poles of being, the ever greater difference between created being and the essentially incomparable God.1
The Council of Chalcedon declared that Christ was “to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ…” This confession was the result of a protracted and tumultuous period of theological reflection, if the term reflection can include bitter invective and fierce confrontation, both intellectually and physically. The Confession of the Chaceldon, while bringing one chapter of Christological controversy to a close, in that it clarified some things about the relation of the divine nature to the human nature in the person of Jesus Christ, also opened the floodgates of schism. After all, when certain ideas and beliefs are not definitively articulated, there is a much wider berth granted towards what one can theologically hold. In respect to the union of the divine and human natures in Christ at least, Chalcedon allowed no one to sit on the fence. Continue reading →
- Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Maximus the Confessor, p. 64 ↩
18
Dec 10
Word Up (or down, as the case may be…)
Google Labs has a new Ngram tool where you can compare results for specified words from within Google’s collection of scanned books. Simply input whatever words you wish, and nearly instantly you can track its usage over the specified time range. (Granted, for some words you probably need to already have some familiarity of when it started to be used in literature.) Continue reading →
6
Dec 10
Individual Substance of a Rational Nature
A month and a half ago I was inspired by my brother’s foray into the burgeoning world of auto-tune theology (which, no doubt, is suffering from an over-population problem) and decided I would make my own attempt. However, as the market for auto-tune theology is surely quite crowded, I went a slightly different, albeit related, route.
Listen to the auto-tune track here. Continue reading →
30
Nov 10
Mystery
This installment of my church fathers’ paraphrases comes from St. Hilary of Poitiers.
Hilary was born to pagan parents sometime around AD 310, but early in his life his study of the scriptures led to his conversion. He was well beloved and respected and in 353 was elected to the bishopric of Poitiers.
Hilary’s life spanned the Arian controversy, and he inserted himself significantly into the disputation. He had disagreements with the bishop of Arles, Saturninus, and attempted to have him excommunicated for his Arianism. However, Saturninus convened the council of Beziers in 356 to both justify his position and deal with Hilary’s meddling. As the majority of the council members were themselves Arians, and as the emperor Constantius was disposed to be in favor of protecting Arianism, Hilary was pronounced against and exiled to Phrygia in 356. He was allowed to return to his bishopric a few years later. Continue reading →
29
Oct 10
The Limit of Naturalism
David B. Hart argues that naturalism is incapable of accounting for the reality of that which is, and thus ipso facto eliminates itself as an exhaustive approach to reality:
The one thing that a naturalist view of reality cannot encompass is being itself, the very existence of nature; nature, by definition, is what already exists, and no investigation of its innate causes can penetrate the mystery of its ontological contingency. Thus naturalism is always surrounded and permeated and exceeded by that which is, quite literally, “super naturam”; and naturalism can be held as a philosophy only to the degree that one fails or scrupulously refuses to notice this surd of the supernatural, this ever deeper mystery behind and beyond all the lesser mysteries of natural order.
Read the rest of it here.
