What is your aesthetic?
I love reading Richard Beck’s blog. Today he posted an excerpt of a conversation he had with one of his students. The student, after reading some critiques of Christianity, was having some doubts about his faith. He asked Dr. Beck why he believed in Christianity. His answer was truly inspiring to me.
Me (Dr. Beck): “Do you want to live a beautiful life?”
Student: “Huh?”
Me (Dr. Beck): “Do you want to live a beautiful life?”
Student: “I think so. Yes, I’d like to live a beautiful life.”
Me (Dr. Beck): “Okay. So what kind of life to you think is beautiful? What is your aesthetic?”
Student: “What do you mean ‘my aesthetic’?”
Me (Dr. Beck): “Judgments of beauty require an aesthetic, some criterion which separates the ugly from the beautiful. So if you want to live a beautiful life you need some way of defining beauty. Here’s a way to find your aesthetic, ask yourself these questions. Who, living or dead, do you admire the most? What moves you to tears? What shakes your soul? When you get answers to these questions you’ll start to see the shape of your aesthetic, what you consider to be a beautiful life.”
Student: “Okay, but what does this have to do with Christianity?”
Me (Dr. Beck): “I’m a Christian because Jesus of Nazareth is my aesthetic. He’s how I define a beautiful life. I’ve noticed in my heart that every time a human action moved my soul or brought tears to my eyes that action reminded me of Jesus. And so, because I want to live a beautiful life, I follow Jesus.”
Thank you Richard Beck for inspiring me today. Full blog post here.
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[...] to ask why this is happening and what exactly is causing it. This is the job of aesthetics, and my aesthetic is Jesus. I read the grace, forgiveness and beauty of Jesus into this particular story to no end. To me, a [...]
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I love this. This ties into my own work on beauty and process thought. The aesthetic of Jesus draws us--at least many of us. This works well with Whitehead's notion of beauty as intense harmony, and that God is more like the "Galilean" image than the Greek image. This is so enriching, as are all your posts. Thanks especially for this one!
Glad you like this, Patricia. I can't take credit for it, obviously, Richard Beck is to thank. But yeah I completely agree with you about it resonating with Whitehead's notion of beauty as intense harmony luring us. The best philosophy and best religion will always begin in wonder and end in wonder! :)