The Quest for God’s Say on Aesthetics.
Posted By admin on June 1, 2009
I have always been puzzled by the question what makes something beautiful. Early on in life I was introduced to the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and for me it just did not ring true or sit well in my gut. I would say taste and preferences are in the eye of the beholder but not beauty. I think aesthetics have rules and 
principles and truths that are as stone solid as the fact that there is gravity or that there is a God. Maybe we can start a new tree in the woods question. If a tree in the woods is not seen by anyone is it still beautiful? I have started a quest. I am currently slowly reading through the Bible studying and searching for rules and hints about the truths of aesthetics. Interestingly enough trees are the first thing in the Bible to get a purely aesthetic judgment in Genesis 2:9 “For out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree pleasant to the sight, and good for meat…” So I would say my tree question is easily answerable. Yes. Early on God mentions that every thing He made was good. This could be an aesthetic judgment being made but for now I am counting it as a moral qualifier and not an aesthetic one. I think that something can be morally good without it being at the same time intrinsically beautiful. The next aesthetic judgment depending on your take of the verse possibly proves this point. Passing on the next item to get a pure aesthetic judgment besides trees is what has been interestingly 
enough labeled as “the fair sex.” Thats right, women are the next thing to get labeled as being beautiful or “fair” as my Bible version translates. Genesis 6:2 “Then the sons of God saw the daughters of men and that they were fair, and they took them wives of all that they liked.” So right off the bat in the Bible God establishes the fact (at least as far as I am concerned) that there are things that are intrinsically beautiful and do not rely on the “eye of the beholder.” Hopping back to my note about the aesthetic quality of an object not always being tied to the morality of it, the notes in my 1599 Geneva Bible say that the two parties in Gen 6:2 are “The children of the godly (“sons of men”)began to degenerate and the daughters of men are “Those that came of wicked parents, as of Cain” so if you follow the Geneva Bible’s take on this* you could derive the rule that something can be aesthetically beautiful and at the same time wicked, evil or sinful. So the moral quality of something is not inherently attached to the aesthetic quality.
These are just my first initial discoveries. Currently I am only up to genesis 24 and I have a long way to go. I cannot wait to get to the sections about the building of the tabernacle and temple. I expect those to be a treasure trove regarding aesthetic principles.
Now I am going to depart a bit and get to the WHY I am doing this. I believe God has called me to film making. I was given the urge to create. There have been times in my life when for weeks or months at a time it seems I was too busy working mundane jobs to be able to let out the ever flowing stream of ideas I seem to get, whether it be ideas for pictures or movies or my really bad writing. When those times have happened or do happen I become a very unhappy camper. In the movie Chariots of fire Eric Liddell has the quote about when he runs he feels Gods pleasure. Well, when I am pursuing artistic pursuits is when I feel God’s pleasure. I just figure if I am going to have a life filled with creating, with telling stories, I had better be doing it God’s way. So I had better find out what is aesthetically beautiful in the site of God. God has put his Law in every mans heart. I believe that law includes aesthetic laws as well but because of man’s total depravity I think that law has a tendency to get very twisted and warped. I want to create movies and pictures that spark and awaken the divine law within men so as to help call and bring them back to God. There is a reason why Jesus mostly taught using stories and parables.
Frank Capra (left) Claudette Colbert (middle) Clark Gable (right)
Frank Capra (who is my favorite director) after shooting the movie “It Happened One Night” decided he needed to make all his movies with one theme. I say that this theme (even thought I do not believe Capra was by any means a Christian) was a divine theme simply because his theme was the second greatest commandment, “Love thy neighbor. ” I want my movies to all have 2 themes. Love the Lord thy God and love thy neighbor. If my movies all contain these themes and are told using Gods rules for aesthetics hopefully I will have a small part in sparking a much needed reformation in our once great country. I just need to figure out the why and wherefore of how God wants these stories crafted. Hence the pursuit of God’s rules for aesthetics.
As I continue on this journey, I have one request of you my readers. The way of an artist is fraught with
the continual urge and temptation to fall victim to pride. God gave me my talents and but for his grace I would not be able to use them. Pray that I never lose site that my main Goal is to glorify God and that everything I do is but by His grace and not of my own doing. Pray that I would never be puffed up with pride but that I would submit all my ways to Him in order that He would be glorified. This is my greatest fear. That should my movies and art be a success that I would forget it is all because of Him and I have had nothing to do with any of my success thus far or in the future.
Also I know my writing lacks much to be desired but thanks for sticking with me though this post.
* I am not totally sure what to think about this passage myself. I am sorta odd in the fact I like to take rather fantastical view. A couple verses later on we see that these unions produced extraordinary men and possibly giants. I believe there is agood possibility this was a union between fallen angels and human women. “Yeah, right!” you say? How many legends and myths are there regarding the union between a god and a human where a “herculean” off spring is then born? Just some food for thought. I am not saying absolutely this is what these verses mean (after all these verses have caused theologians great consternation for centuries) I am just saying I am open to the possibility.
