Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn proclaimed that beauty will save the world and this essay explores how Blake’s prophetic writings (especially “Jerusalem”) reveal how beauty transforms individuals and societies.  Beauty need not be a commodity, a thing to be craved.  Beauty can be about perceiving the divine in every thing, and such spiritual materialism can engender social justice.  As beauty can transfigure individuals, forgiveness can structure societies.  Blake’s heroine (Jerusalem) embodies an aesthetic theology which changes assumptions about territory, inclusion, and wealth.  The beauty of peace can reveal the interconnectedness of all things.

Abstract from Susanne Sklar’s essay How Beauty Will Save the World: William Blake’s Prophetic Vision from the journal Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality – Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 2007

Painting by Max Earnst, Terre Écossaise, 1935.

Tags:beautydostoyevskymax earnstPoetrysolzhenitsynwilliam blake