I was thinking about something today upon a sight I saw. There are people that are like myself that have things go wrong in their life that produce physical characteristics less than beautiful. Note that I am not saying they are not beautiful. We just know something is wrong. Aquinas spoke about this centuries ago even. If you meet someone without an arm for instance, you know that there is something wrong with the sight.
I’ll be at the beach tomorrow for instance, so readers, don’t expect a blog tomorrow. Even I need to vacation! I know though that due to my back surgery and a steel rod on my spine, that the scar that is on my back is not the most pleasant sight in the world. Some of you dear readers might have similar conditions that you can much more easily see in a mirror and wonder about them.
When God created the world, we know he created it good, but Armand Maurer in his work “About Beauty’ looking at the thoughts of Aquinas on beauty stated how that the concept of goodness would also include beauty. When God created, not only was all that he created good, it was beautiful. Makes sense since he said that woman was very good!
Thus, all that truly is, is beautiful. My scar is something that is not really. It points to a flaw on my part physically. We speak of reaching Heaven and having our emotional and psychological scars removed. I wonder how often though we think of our physical scars and deformities being removed as well. We should as we are people of the body.
This is truly an exciting thought! Consider the person you see today! When you look at them and think about all that is not beautiful being stripped away and being left with that which is beautiful. Naturally, it’s not as beautiful as God who is beauty, a fully orthodox statement to make if any, but it is a beautiful reflection for it does not contradict his nature.
I can imagine some Christian husbands getting very pleased right now. As beautiful as your wife may be now, she is only going to grow in beauty in the afterlife. (Isn’t that an odd name as I consider it? As if the cessation of life happens and then that? It’s quite the opposite. We could say this is the pre-life and the so-called afterlife is when life really begins.)
Friends. I love thinking about beauty. (And being at the beach means so much more time to ponder it.) I am fully convinced of the objectivity of beauty and this is a battle that we need to win. I even include the existence of beauty in my arguments for the existence of God. I believe it is that strong. If only people would ponder the beautiful and what it is, I believe they would get closer and closer to God.
I plan on writing more on this beauty when I get back and how it works on an applicational level.
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