On the trail of beauty, I’ve been trying to think about how different historical ages conceived of it. Here are some preliminary ideas.

The Greeks

Two great ideas stand out in the Greek conception of beauty:

1) The human body. Whether commemorated in shapely marble statues or in Homer’s verse glorifying martial prowess, the form and movement of the human body is of the highest value in Greek conceptions of beauty. Plato’s proposal for the education of the guardians of the Republic includes early and intensive training in music and gymnastics (see Bk II and III of the Republic). Plato hopes to instill harmony and rhythm in the body.

I recently watched the movie Troy. The beauty of this film is mesmerizing. Its portrayal of Achilles well-captures the classical Greek concept of physical beauty.

2) Mathematics. Platonic geometry with its idealized three-dimensional shapes, and Euclidean geometry with its rigorous and formally complete deductive science, symbolize beauty in the Greek mind. Abstraction and unchanging permanence signify perfection. Proportion and ratio, both closely related to mathematics, appear as the highest values in Greek music and architecture. Think of the Parthenon. In the abstract orderliness of mathematics we see the Greek (Platonic) attempt to instill harmony and stability in the soul (which is justice or virtue).

The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages in the west were beset by squalor and terror caused by the breakdown of classical civilization. By the time of the High Middle ages, Scholasticism emerged with its own new concept of beauty. The medieval “scala naturae” and the “natural law” may be used to illustrate it. In both of these philosophical ideas, beauty resides in the conformity of the natural world (the essences or natures of things) to the mind of man or the mind of God. The “scale of nature” imagines perfection in a grand ordering or grading of all beings like rungs on a ladder going from the lowliest inanimate creature up to the divine heights of the angels and God. Higher beings have higher worth, and there can be no missing rungs or gaps in the sequence, no “missing links” in the perfect chain of being.

“Natural law” indicates the proper dispositions and activities of all beings according to their essence or nature. What something “is” determines how it “ought” to be disposed and how it ought to behave. (Consider natural law arguments re: human sexuality and marriage, which figure so prominently in contemporary moral discourse.) Natural law is commanded in the first place by the orderly mind of God in His acts of creation; it is perceived by the mind of man as he contemplates the natures of things (nature). Indications are given in man’s study of nature as to the theological attributes of God, and man is led to “natural theology”.

It is possible there is another kind of beauty to be found in the Gothic piety of the Middle Ages and its romantic lays of chivalry. This would be the human and religious side. This kind of beauty finds admirers in such literary analysts and (Anglo-) Catholics as C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton.

Enlightenment

The Enlightenment takes over the Scholastic concept to see beauty in the human mastery over nature (mind over matter), especially in science and politics. Man escapes the arbitrary authority and superstitions of corrupt institutions and traditions and imposes Reason upon messy reality to bring order out of chaos. The west sees the rise of modern science in the beauty of Newton’s theoretical system, and the rise of modern political ideals and movements in the human aspiration to form a perfect society. Consider Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis for a melding of the two.

Combined with the revival of classical ideals begun in the Renaissance, the Enlightenment gives us modern humanism.

Romanticism

Romantic ideals of beauty are also found in nature and in man. Wordsworth tramped his native English countryside and wrote poetry to express his feelings and experiences. Romanticism finds beauty in nature as “scenery” and in the unrestrained emotive creations of the human heart. For the Romantic beauty lies in the “natural man” as he is found in an unspoilt setting of woods, mountains, and sea (Rousseau’s noble savage); and as he creates original works of poetry and fine art. Combined with medieval piety and chivalry we also have the birth of modern romantic love.

(The movie Troy is Romantic in its depiction of the gorgeous blue of the Aegean sea, the golden sands of the beachhead at Troy, and the heartfelt poetic pleas of Paris as he pursues romantic love with Helen.)

In its emotionalism and subjectivity, and in its reaction to the modernism of Enlightenment, Romanticism is the forerunner of postmodernism. But whereas Romanticism went self-consciously in search of the beautiful or sublime in wild, scenic nature and in the untamed heart, postmodernism revels in “deconstruction” (as against modern system), victimization (as against modern triumph), cynicism (as against modern certainty), and ugliness (as against modern optimism).

Christian Beauty

Christian beauty is not captured by any of these historical ideals. In some cases it might be approximated by them, or partially expressed using their terminology or sentiments, but its Source is entirely different.

Christian beauty has as its Source the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Who make their dwelling on earth and in the heart of man. There is saintly beauty in the human soul as Christ resides in it and heals it, and as it prays in the Holy Spirit. Think of the gentle beauty of the holiest old monks of Athos. There is mysterious spacious beauty in the houses of God, the churches, with their regular domes and cruciform shape, their gleaming icons, incense and candlelight, and the drone of constant prayer lifting all creation up to God. There is an enormous beauty in the whole of creation as it participates in the Thanksgiving of the Eucharist in the offering of bread and wine and as it anticipates the coming of the Kingdom, when God shall be All in all. Most of all there is beauty in the deep goodness, light, and truth of Christ as He comes to save and perfect what had been lost in Eden, restoring it to deathless Paradise and to the Heavenly Father. This culmination of Christin beauty is fullness of glory.