Each of us is writing his or her own story with God. Each of our stories has been influenced by many factors.
Sociology is a legitimate academic discipline. We can learn a great deal from Sociology. However there is a philosophy called Sociologism, which claims that we are totally the product of the groups to which we belong.
In other words the groups to which we belong are so influential in our lives that we are not free. In effect Sociologism claims that the groups to which we belong erase our freedom and make us completely determined.
I don’t accept that view of the human person but I think we have to admit that the groups to which we belong play a strong role in shaping and forming us, perhaps more than we usually realize.
Think of how much people are shaped and formed by their families, especially by their parents and siblings. Even though I recognize that we can be enormously influenced by others, I continue to believe that no matter how many influences there are in our lives, the nature of the human person is to be free.
I believe that the priest who is writing this column and those who are reading it have their ultimate identity through two freedoms, human freedom and divine freedom. All of us are co-writing our stories with God. Finally, each of us is the product of God’s choices and our choices.
Though we may not think of this often, we are always trying to make our lives, our stories more beautiful. Some free decisions we make do make our stories more beautiful.
Unfortunately some of the decisions we make do not make our lives more beautiful. We can make mistakes, and looking back on our lives, we can probably understand, with the wisdom of hindsight, that some of the decisions we have made in our lives were not wise. That should not paralyze us and prevent us from making important decisions.
In his book What Is God? How to Think about the Divine (New York: Paulist Press, 1986, pp. 143, $14.95) John Haught uses the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead in discussing the meaning of beauty in relation to our stories. Haught writes the following:
“Alfred North Whitehead, whose philosophy is permeated with 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 or 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 Whitehead’s and Haught’s view of beauty both insightful and accurate. Applying that view to objects of art such as a film or a novel or a play or a painting, I think their view of beauty can help us see why some art is beautiful and some is not. We can experience masterpieces many times and often gain new experiences and perhaps deeper experiences of beauty each time. I use the films “Citizen Kane” and “On the Waterfront” in my Philosophy and Film course at St. John’s University.
I probably have seen each film more than 20 times. Still the next time I see either film, I expect that I will experience some aspect of beauty that I may not have noticed previously. A novel that has harmony, order and pattern but no novelty or nuance or richness is dull. A play that has nuance, novelty and richness but no harmony or pattern or order is chaotic.
I think the view of beauty that Whitehead and Haught embrace can be applied to our lives.
We are always trying to achieve in our lives a wedding of nuance, richness and novelty with pattern or harmony or order. To the extent that we succeed, our lives will be beautiful; to the extent that we fail, our lives will be lacking in beauty.
While pattern, harmony and order may make us feel secure, there will be moments when we want more in our lives. As we try to achieve a deeper beauty, we may be called to take risks.
Our future is not completely known to us, and so every choice involves a risk. I believe that we are called by God to become more and more free. I have come to believe that the holiest persons in the world are also the freest persons. Witness Jesus, Mary and the saints.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. He presents two 15-minute talks from his lecture series on the Catholic Novel, 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday on NET-TV.
