Praising in Song: Beaty and the Arts
Kevin J. Vanhooozer
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Doxology: In Praise of Beauty? A new phrase for me: sub specie aeternitatis. It is Latin for "under the aspect of eternity"; hence, from Spinoza onwards, an honorific expression describing what is universally and eternally true, without any reference to or dependence upon the merely temporal portions of reality.
"The argument of present chapter is that praising God in song–a staple practice of the Church–forms our imaginations and hence our sensibilities as to what is fitting in the created (and redeemed) order."
The True, the Good, and the Beautiful" The Ancient/Modern Quarrel.
- Auld Alliance, ancient quarrel. Truth, good, and beauty are three categories that philosophers parse the world into. Beauty is a bit of a poor stepsister to the other two.
- The modern quarrel. In the modern world, beauty became separated from truth and goodness. There was an argument if something could be beautiful in and of itself, with no reference to anything true or good.
- The postmodern quarrel. Beauty, according to postmodern philosophy, is just an expression of power. " … the malaise of our time: sloth, the inability to believe in, or do, anything." "One is hard pressed to identify that for which postmodern men and women are willing to live of die."
Beauty and Imagination in the Christian Life: Beholding and Beholden to: "Christian ethics is our responsible response to the gift of Christian freedom."
- The ethos of the mythos. [ethos: the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations] "Culture creates an ethos via the work of the imagination (mythos)." Here comes a provocative statement: "The Church growth movement, with its 'seeker sensitive' appeal to the lowest common denominator, is as ugly as the popular culture it mimics, and so is its result …" I'm not sure I totally buy that statement ,but it is close to the truth anyway.
- Wisdom as moral imagination: right attention, right action. "… the Holy Spirit [is] God's imagination let loose … in the world."
- The ends of beauty: the ethos of the eschaton. True beauty is only seen in the resurrection and when God's space and our space are made one (to use NT Wright's imagery.
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"Praise without Ceasing": A Diet of Doxology
- Doxological Aesthetics. "Where the capacity to see and appreciate beauty is absent, the true and the good lock compellingness."
- Being-toward-resurrection: living hymns. "Christians glorify God in all that they do not simply as living letters, but as living hymns."
- Hymns that celebrate
- Hymns that rehearse
- Hymns that console [Vocabulary: eucatastrophe--noun, rare--a sudden and favorable resolution of events in a story; a happy ending. said to have been coined by J. R. R. Tolkien.]
Conclusion: Living Beautifully. We are called to live beautiful lives.