In “The Canticle of the Sun,” Francis consistently uses the Italian preposition per, by which he is saying that God is praised through (not for) the very existence of the sun, moon, stars, wind, air, weather, water, fire and earth. This is significant and telling. Their very existence gives glory whether any human ever sees…
Posts Tagged
beauty
The Man Who Loves Beautiful Things
Consider a man who loves beautiful things, who makes a point of being present at new tragedies, seeing new pictures, and hearing new music. Such a man is not a philosopher, because he loves only beautiful things, whereas the philosopher loves beauty in itself. The man who only loves beautiful things is dreaming, whereas the…
How Beauty Will Save the World
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. …
Truth, Goodness and Beauty
To feel deeply that truth, goodness, and beauty belong together, that, in fact, in their fullest realization, they are together, is another way of saying that one believes in God. To experience what little we can do as persons as still important is a form of belief in God. To sense that we are known…