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What do you find beautiful? Perhaps a view; a person; a picture; a garden; a piece of music; an experience? Each of us reading this post will come up with slightly different things in answer to that question.

And yet we all find something beautiful; and whatever it is we love it – we long for it. In fact every human being loves beauty, and longs for beauty. And we don’t just want to see beauty – we want to be part of it. The author CS Lewis wrote:

We do not want merely to see beauty… We want something else, to be united to the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.

CS Lewis, Weight of Glory

Over the past year or so I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about beauty. I didn’t set out to do that. Rather I set out to do some thinking about the spiritual practices of the theologian Jonathan Edwards. That turned into a sermon series, reproduced as the ‘Means of grace’ posts elsewhere on this blog.

But as I progressed I discovered that what holds Jonathan Edwards’ thinking together – and what I most appreciate about his thinking – is the idea of beauty. It’s something I long for; it’s something every single one of us longs for whether we realise it or not. In this new series of posts – following a recent sermon series – I hope to share some of the riches I’ve discovered. In this first post I’ll seek to lay out the landscape.

Objections to thinking about beauty

It’s worth first considering some objections to thinking about beauty.

First – many of us think of beauty as being very subjective. Each of us finds different things beautiful. We’ve heard the phrase ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, and it seems to capture something of the variety of opinions as to what is beautiful.  But as a result, we very easily dismiss beauty as having no purpose, importance, or objective reality. We think it’s purely a matter of personal taste. And that has led many people – including many Christians – to separate the idea of beauty from the idea of God. And as we’ll see, that is a great tragedy.

In my reading I’ve discovered that in Christian thinking until about 300 years ago there were 3 ultimate things that were seen as being vitally important and pointing people to God: Truth; Goodness; and Beauty. That is, when we see truth it points us to a God who is true; and so with goodness and beauty. When we see beauty it points us to a God who is beautiful. But tragically 300 years ago through the Enlightenment and then the Romantic response to the Enlightenment beauty was separated off from the other two. And that is a tragedy because as we’re going to see the beauty in the world is one of the biggest evidences for God that exists.

The second objection is that we can’t see the purpose of beauty, and therefore we don’t know what to do with it. We may not like all politicians but we know what their purpose is; we may not be good at science but we know what it’s for. But art? What is that for? What lies behind this is that our culture has gone even further than the Church in not only rejecting beauty but also rejecting goodness and truth; and today there is principally a focus on what is useful – what works. And as Christians we’re often more caught up in that than we realise. We easily focus on what works, and therefore on process. And so often we don’t know what to do with beauty.

And then the third objection – linked to the previous two – is that beauty seems like a luxury. We think it’s all very well to find something beautiful and to enjoy it; but it’s not necessary. What matters is having enough money; doing what needs to be done; finding ways to get through life. Indeed, we can find ourselves thinking that we simply don’t have time for luxuries like beauty.  

Responding to the objections

As we begin to respond to those objections, consider Psalm 27 with me. Verse 4 of Psalm 27 is a famous verse concerned with the beauty of God:

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

It’s a lovely verse – the kind of verse you find on a calendar, or that you might memorise. It’s certainly one of my favourite Bible verses. But consider verse 4 in the context of the whole Psalm. In Psalm 27 David is in the midst of suffering, enemies, hardship and hostility:

When the wicked advance against me
    to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

Psalm 27:2-3

David is in the mire; he’s surrounded by his enemies; he’s besieged by an army; he’s up against it. And we can probably identify with that sometimes. And how does he respond? “I want to be with God, and I want to see his beauty.” For David the solution to his trouble is not to work his way out of it; it’s not to plan and strategise; it’s not even purely to focus on the truth. Rather, for David the solution to his trouble is to gaze on God’s beauty.

Is beauty real as far as David is concerned? It certainly is. Does it matter? It does; in fact when David is in the darkness it is beauty that sustains him, in particular the beauty of God. That’s been my experience as well. When faced with challenges and discouragements, it’s usually a glimpse of the beauty and the glory of God which has kept me going.

Ultimate beauty

God

Before exploring beauty in detail it’s helpful to briefly consider ultimate beauty. Jonathan Edwards tells us there is something supremely beautiful – which every other beauty points us towards. Think of a sunbeam that you see breaking through the trees on a spring morning. The sunbeam is beautiful in itself; but it also directs you elsewhere, towards the sun that is sending it out. It’s the same with the thing we find beautiful – whether it’s a view, a person, a piece of music or whatever. That beautiful thing comes from the source of beauty – the ‘sun’ of beauty – and points beyond itself to the sun – which is where our gaze should be directed. (Edwards develops this image in a number of his writings including the sermon ‘Christ the Spiritual Sun’.)

And Psalm 27 tells us what our sun is – the beauty that every other beauty points towards: it is God. The thing David longs for in the midst of suffering isn’t a view, it isn’t a person, it isn’t an experience (not even in itself the experience of being safe) – it’s God. (See also Isaiah 28:5, 33:17).

And Jonathan Edwards and many other theologians show that God is the foundation of beauty, the source of beauty, and the most beautiful being there is. Thinking again of sunbeams coming from the sun: the sun is the foundation, the source, and the most beautiful thing – far more beautiful than the individual sunbeams. Every individual sunbeam – the things you and I find beautiful – should point us to God the sun who is ultimate beauty.

Edwards wrote:

God is the foundation and fountain of all being and beauty.

Nature of true virtue

It was you then, O Lord, who made them. You who are beautiful, for they too are beautiful. You who are good, for they too are good. You who are, for they too are. But they are not beautiful and good as you are beautiful and good. Nor do they have their being as you the Creator have your being. In comparison with you, they have neither beauty nor goodness nor being at all.

Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

Consent between beings – The Trinity

As we think about ultimate beauty we can go further. Edwards distinguishes between primary beauty and secondary beauty, where primary beauty is the more important and fundamental.

Most of the things we think of as being beautiful – a view, a person’s outward looks, a work of art – are examples of secondary beauty, being reflections of primary beauty. What is primary beauty? It’s what Edwards calls ‘consent or agreement between spiritual beings.’ In other words, primary beauty is about relationships.

It’s worth noting that Edwards is using the word ‘consent’ differently to how we use it today. We tend to use the word to describe a low level of commitment – such as the ‘age of consent.’ Edwards means quite the opposite – a deep relationship of commitment, delight and unity: in its highest form, love. And the supreme example of this – and the most beautiful thing of all – is the love relationship between God the Father and God the Son; and the essence of that love relationship is so intense that it is a person, namely the Holy Spirit. We’ll consider this more in a future post, but to summarise what has been said so far, our longings for beauty are ultimately only satisfied as we participate in the love relationship of the Trinity.

How does God’s beauty relate to his glory and holiness?

We often talk about God’s glory (not least thanks to the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 1, and the ministry of John Piper among others) but are perhaps less used to talking about God’s beauty. How do the two relate to each other?

In his classic text Systematic Theology Wayne Grudem writes that the beauty of God is ‘that attribute whereby he is the sum of all desirable qualities.’ (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology). And one way of thinking about God’s glory is that it’s God’s beauty revealed and made public. Ray Ortlund writes:

What is the glory of the Lord? It is the fiery radiance of his very nature. It is his blazing beauty. . .  The glory of the Lord . . . is God himself becoming visible, God bringing his presence down to us, God displaying his beauty before us.

Ray Ortlund

And the heart of God’s beauty is his holiness:

Those affections that are truly holy, are primarily founded on the loveliness of the moral excellency of divine things. Or (to express it otherwise), a love to divine things for the beauty and sweetness of their moral excellency is the first beginning and spring of all holy affections.

Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

How do we experience the beauty of God?

There is one final question that we must consider as we survey the landscape. If God is the supremely beautiful one – and if no-one is fully satisfied until we experience relationship with God – why do so few people see his beauty? Why do so many people think of God as not beautiful – and for that matter not good and not true?

I’ve written about how the Holy Spirit enables us to see God’s beauty in the recent post ‘A new sense of the heart.’ In a future post we’ll consider how sin leads people (including us) to focus on created things, rather than the creator. As a result of the Fall all people are naturally spiritually blind. And that means naturally we can’t see the beauty of God. We need the Holy Spirit to open our blind spiritual eyes. And the new sense of the heart given by the Holy Spirit at regeneration not only enables us to see God’s beauty intellectually; we are given a whole new ‘sense of the heart’ which enables us to taste God’s beauty for the first time, in the same way that we taste honey for the first time.  

Have you read the Bible – perhaps a description of Jesus – and found yourself sensing how wonderful he is, in a sense tasting his beauty and his goodness and his love in a way comparable to tasting honey? Have you sung a hymn or worship song and been transported to a place where you are as it were gazing on and adoring God? Have you looked up at the stars at night and been amazed at how big God must be to have made all of that? If so you have that sense of the heart. And it is the Holy Spirit who has given it to you.

What difference does this make for me?

The first question we all need to ask is: “Have I received this sense of the heart, giving me a taste for God’s beauty?” There’s a simple way to test that. Have you ever tasted the beauty of God? Can you remember a time when you read a passage of the Bible, or sung a worship song, or heard a sermon – and you tasted God’s beauty, God’s goodness, God’s holiness or God’s magnificence?

If you haven’t – ask him to give it to you! Several times Jesus says “Ask your Father to give you his Holy Spirit and he will.” But just be aware that he won’t give it to those who have not repented – who are not willing to turn to Jesus as Lord and Saviour. You have to be willing to do that. You can find out more here.

Second – As you go about your life this week – whether it’s travelling to work, seeing the people around you, looking at a view, or working in the garden – ask yourself “how do this thing I’m finding beautiful point beyond itself to God and his beauty?”

Third – how do we grow as individual Christians, and as a church community? One of the most important things – possibly the most important thing – is to get to know God in his beauty better. Everything else will follow, as we see in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” As we gaze on God’s glory – his beauty gone public – so we are changed into his likeness, both individually and as a church. 

Fourth – how do we cope in hardship and difficulty? We’ve already seen how David copes in his hardship in Psalm 27: He gazes on God’s beauty. This is what sustains him and keeps him going; and the same for us. Why? Seeing God’s beauty gives us hope; it gives us confidence; it helps us to see our difficulties in perspective – that there’s something else, something bigger, something better that we are part of; and it even helps us to see that in some remarkable way God is working in and through our difficulties to make us more and more part of that beauty that we long for.

Taking it further

Jonathan Edwards on Beauty – Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney

Jonathan Edwards on the Experience of Beauty – Louis Mitchell

Reimagining Beauty – An Enquiry into the Role of Beauty and Aesthetics in the Spiritual formation of Congregations – Matthew Capps