John Cunningham, On Beauty and Spiritual Formation

To some, the claim that beauty is key to our spiritual formation, will seem like romanticized blather. Others would whole-heartedly (an uncritically) accept such a notion, but not be able to do much with it beyond think it was a cool idea. Nonetheless, the claim is as old as the hills: sanctification, spiritual growth, spiritual (re)formation (or whatever else we might want to call the process of becoming truly human) requires participation in beauty.

One reason this concept can be hard to embrace is that our modern notion of maturation is so different than it was before the time of the Enlightenment. Often we reduce the means of becoming godly to a formula something like: truth + commitment = growth. When we continue to struggle with sin and immaturity, we assume that we need either 1) to get our theology and Christian worldview straight (“If you really understood ______ then …) or, more likely, 2) we just need to resolve (usually after some intense experience) to give 100%, sell out totally for Christ, get serious about things, etc. and actually follow through this time. Obviously, truth and commitment are necessary for growth. But are they sufficient?

Pre-modern folks had a different notion of how people become what they should. It can be summarized under the ancient Greek concept of paideia. This word is hard to translate; often it is rendered “education” or “formation.” Some English versions of the Bible translate it “training” or “discipline.” For the Greeks, paideia entailed learning by becoming, by participating in the ideals of their culture. Learning to live like a good Greek involved the formation of attitudes, language, tastes, even instincts. It was character formation. It was enculturation into the good, the true and the beautiful. The idea was that our love of the beautiful, guided by reason, could lead us to the good.

In the end however, the Greeks could train good Greeks, but they could not form the New Humanity. Not only does reason not always guide our appetites, very frequently it doesn’t. Even the classical love of beauty could become effete and corrupt. Eventually the Greeks weakened and consumed themselves.

The idea that a well-formed human is intimately acquainted with beauty has continued, however. The Greek legacy lives on.

The cultural shift of the eighteenth century that gave us our concept of “high culture”. The concept of Bildung — a German word that is also hard to translate (roughly “formation” or “education”) but has to do with becoming a “cultured,“ “polite” (in the sense of “polished”), or “refined” person. The cultural elite came to view the arts and the appreciation of beauty as central to Bildung. A truly refined lady or gentleman would read novels and poetry, frequent concert halls and art galleries, and appreciate the beauty of nature. Even today art museums, poetry readings, the opera, and the like are considered the purview of the upper classes. Surely this elitist perspective cannot be the sense in which beauty forms our souls.

As Christians, we believe that beauty does matter, and that it is more than “aesthetic appreciation.” It is also not something that can be grasped by human aspiration; it must be received as a gift. While the Greeks sought to ascend to beauty through contemplation, Christians believe that beauty was bestowed upon us in creation and was given in its fullest form in the Incarnation. We believe that God is both beautiful and Beauty itself, so that the Greeks were right to recognize an innate hunger for beauty (eros) in human beings. They were also wise to realize that humans must be enculturated into beauty, through acculturation into the community. Christian formation is a disciplined inhabitation beauty. For Christians, practices (e.g., spiritual disciplines and the liturgy), guidance by the law, and participation in the communal life of God’s people (the Church) help heal our ugliness and form a new humanity who live in a more beautiful way—a community which enacts the good life. This in turn produces well-ordered souls in individuals—lives that reflect the wholeness, integration and flourishing of shalom. We become beautiful as we participate in the harmonious corporate life of a redeemed people who are, in turn, grounded in and reflective of the very Beauty of God.

 

© 2006, John Cunningham.

 

Comments

[the Foolish Sage]

John,

Just realized when I saw your picture with this post that you're the guy who taught the seminar on beauty at the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville that I attended maybe three years ago. I'd lost the first page of my notes and so had forgotten the speaker! I still look at those notes every now an again and find them an inspiration. Glad to see you're still fanning these flames!

[Mike Dodaro]

If you have not read Carson Holloway's book on music and character formation, you may find my review interesting. Originally published in New Oxford Review, it is now found here: http://operaciv.blogspot.com/
Tile: All Shook Up; Music, Passion, and Politics.