In last edition’s column, I tried to emphasize the special value that artistic masterpieces can play in our lives.
Re-reading Dostoevsky’s great novel, “The Brothers Karamazov,” for 15 minutes each day has been a wonderful experience that has reminded me how much artistic masterpieces can enrich our experience. Artistic classics can inspire us and help us to see more deeply into what it means to be human. Every time I hear about some university cancelling the school’s liberal arts program, I cringe.
The main reason I love teaching philosophy at St. John’s University is that philosophy can help students reflect on the most important questions, which, unfortunately, our society often discourages them from confronting. At least indirectly and implicitly, artistic classics can tell us something about God. I think that can be an important contribution to a person’s life.
But Christian faith can enrich our lives in an almost incredible way. In his extraordinary book, “What Is God: How to Think about the Divine,” John Haught presents the aesthetic view of beauty succinctly, as presented by philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.
Haught writes the following: “Alfred North Whitehead, whose philosophy is permeated by aesthetic considerations, tells us that beauty is the ‘harmony of contrasts.’ What makes us appreciate the beauty of things is that they bring together nuance, richness, complexity, and novelty on the one side, and harmony, pattern, and order on the other. The more ‘intense’ the synthesis of harmony and contrast, the more we appreciate their union. Nuance without harmony is chaos, and harmony without nuance is monotony. Beauty involves the transformation of potentially clashing elements into pleasing contrasts harmonized by the overarching aesthetic pattern of the beautiful object of experience” (p. 72).
I find that Whitehead’s theory works wonderfully for me when evaluating literature, films, and theater. I cannot apply Whitehead’s theory to viewing paintings or sculptures, or listening to music, because I just don’t know enough about painting, sculptures, or music. However, I think the theory works wonderfully when we try to consider whether a human life is beautiful or not.
In anyone’s life, we can ask whether the seven characteristics of beauty are present and if there is a good synthesis.
In last week’s column, I tried to show how artistic classics can enrich our lives and make our lives more beautiful. This week, I wish to suggest that nothing has the power to enrich our lives and make them more beautiful than Christian faith has. Each of us is writing his or her own story.
Pope Francis said he was certain that God is part of everyone’s life. When I met Pope Francis, I told him
that I am now certain because he said he was certain.
God is part of everyone’s story. The narrative of our lives is influenced by many events, and our attempt to live meaningfully can be greatly influenced by those events. I think our identity is due to God’s free choices and our free choices. Haught suggests that our identity is often deeply influenced by the heroic stories, stories of individuals who have lived extraordinarily attractive lives.
What heroic story is greater than the story of Jesus?
By modeling our lives on his life, and his teaching, death, and resurrection, we will introduce into our lives great richness, newness, and complexity that no great artistic masterpiece or classic can equal. As we try to live as followers of Christ, we are not alone. Jesus has sent his Spirit to us.
St. Paul expressed the Christian life so beautifully when he claimed, “I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.” In trying to write our individual stories by allowing Christ and His Spirit to inspire us, shape, and form us, we allow a richness, novelty, complexity, and nuance into our experience that is truly mind-boggling.
In relation to our lives becoming more beautiful, the sky’s the limit, and by that I mean that there is no limit to our possible growth. We can allow Christ’s presence to challenge our consciences. Because Christ is part of our story, we should allow Christ’s presence to remove any fears we might have about the future and enable us to allow Christ and His Spirit to deepen our courage.
What comes to my mind immediately is the Eucharist. Every time we celebrate it, we allow Christ into our lives in a special way. Each sacrament is a special encounter with God. Scripture tells the most heroic story in history. Each of our stories is part of a bigger story, the story of God entering time and again into human history.
That our story is able to be illuminated and deepened through our Christian faith should help us to trust and hope, and that very trust and hope enriches our story.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. His new book, “The Cosmic Love Story: God and Us,” is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.