“Evil is not eliminated by a destructive retributive judgment, but by an aesthetic synthesis of intensity, order, and harmony. Whitehead’s God is not a cosmic judge; rather, God is a cosmic artist. The many poor paintings of individual lives and events are transformed in a continuous aesthetic process of harmonizing the parts with an ideal whole in mind. As Whitehead states: “There is then the evil of triviality–a sketch in place of a full picture.” In this passage from Process and Reality the metaphor changes from painting to poetry: “[God] does not create the world; she saves it: or, more accurately, she is the poet of the world, with tender patience leading it by her vision of truth, beauty, and goodness.””

I’ve once again been revisiting this essay by process philosopher, Nick Grier. It’s good stuff.

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Art above by Andreia Gil

Tags:aestheticsartevilnick grierprocess philosophyprocess theologyrealitytheopoeticswhitehead