A Beautiful God?
December 4th, 2006
“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. ” - Leo Tolstoy
OK, today’s obviously confession time, because having outed myself as a Kevin Rudd supporter (albeit from a “who else is there” perspective), I’m now about to unleash one of my theological blind spots. Here it is: I don’t understand how or why we talk about God as being “beautiful”. And even once we accept that it is possible to speak of God as being beautiful, why is it important?
Thinking about this was triggered by hearing someone describe their new favourite worship song, which I gather centred around repeating over and over again how beautiful God is. Now, maybe I’m on my own here, but I really struggle to understand how I could possibly relate to singing about the beauty of God. I don’t have any concept of God being beautiful, and I’m not sure that I need God to be beautiful himself for me to love him.
Now part of this is probably to do with me being a boy, and being a computer nerd at that, so my aesthetic appreciation is likely to be considered somewhat diminished. But I DO actually believe that lots of our push towards seeking after a beautiful God relates back to the underlying cultural push to be make everything beautiful. We need God to be beautiful because beautiful is better, and we want our God to be better than anything else that the world has to offer. We end up being determined to beat the world at its own game.
So I’m much less interested in a beautiful God than I am in a messy God, and in a God who gets dirty. But I’m very interested to hear people explain where a beautiful God fits into the equation, how you connect with God being beautiful, and whether or not it’s of genuine value to your faith. It’s been really good and encouraging to see the lively discussion around the place - particularly on the consumerism posts, so I’m hoping we can keep that going.
December 4th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
As a very big fan of the song you are talking about Geoff. I want God to be (and believe He is) beautiful. Not in the earthly, how He looks way but in the awesome, amazing, incredible powerful way. Beautiful because of what and who He is. Doesn’t your lack of interest in God being beautiful relate to how and what you perceive beauty or beautiful to be? When I sing the worship song you are talking about I’m not singing it to a God that I perceive to be good looking and pretty in the worldly sense but to an amazing, incredible, powerful, almighty and yes, beautiful God.
December 4th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
I am also a fan of this song Geoff, and agree entirely with what Rhonda wrote. I guess my idea of God’s beauty relates partly to his role as the Creator, a creator of an immmense amount of what is truly awesome and beautiful in the natural world (inc us humans and even innocent little ducks;))If God as creator could create such incredible beauty in our world-that surely somehow reflects an aspect of his own being that knows and is beauty, in the same way that he is holy, or powerful. Not sure if that makes sense, but I’ll share it anyway!
December 4th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Some interesting thoughts there Geoff - I can understand some of your reticence with this way of describing God - it can fall remarkably close to the “Jesus is my boyfriend” sentiment. I agree with Melinda however, in that I believe God reveals his nature through his creation (I guess like any artist, and the beauty of His creation is undeniable. It is different to the sculpted, airbrushed shallow concept of beauty embraced by our culture. Another thought is that we can describe a person as having a beautiful nature or heart etc - something of the quality we describe about that person through that choice of language may also be invoked when we think of God as beautiful.
December 4th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
I wonder if a girl wants her boy to be beautiful (in a guy sort of way that probably = hunk), or a wife her husband? It’s poetry - it’s metaphorical. why does the metaphor exist? perhaps because we as the church are the bride of Christ. The lover and the loved - beauty surely come in there somehow. What is hard for us nerdy kinds of guys, is to have the metaphors - the poetry affect us, speak to our emotions. Do programmers ever talk about “beautiful pieces of computer code”? I’m sure they do even if they use slightly different terms. The beauty relates to the intrinsic worth of the thing described as beautiful. That the World pursues beautiful is because it idolises the beauty that God has blessed the world with. YHWH got in first in the beauty stakes.
Of course the absolute wonder is that not only is he beautiful, but he’s messy, he’s terrifying, he’s creative, he’s kind, he’s not safe, he’s good, etc.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:39 am
What is not beautiful about messy? What is not beautiful about a God who is justice, but who is also love?
Beautiful doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with pretty and nice. I think beautiful has much much more to do with truth. The beauty of God is. It just is. How does one explain that?
December 5th, 2006 at 12:52 am
ah the lurkings of Narnia. All theologians you say! “Hey look, that’s my Dad!”
“Now part of this is probably to do with me being a boy, and being a computer nerd at that, so my aesthetic appreciation is likely to be considered somewhat diminished.”
darn! - heres to hoping I (being the boy-nerd’s girlfriend) am aesthetically appreciable. No really, I’m not worried, but it did amuse me!
December 5th, 2006 at 12:54 am
Thanks so much for the help, I’m trying to keep working this stuff out, but so far it seems to me that we describe God as beautiful because:
* beautiful is a synonym for good and wonderful - so beautiful as an intrinsic value rather than as an outward appearance
* we can know God is beautiful because we can see his beauty reflected in what he does
* beautiful becomes a metaphor for describing who God is so that we can understand having a loving relationship with him.
Now, this is probably just that my own interpretation needs re-alignment, rather than the songs themselves, but I must admit that none of the above things are what I’m thinking about when I’m singing a worship song about the beauty of God. But perhaps just thinking through this will change my focus.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:56 am
Sorry Rebecca, there should have been an emphasis on the word “considered” in that statement. I just knew that if I left it there hanging, someone was bound to use the argument that I’m just a boy who doesn’t appreciate beauty. Wanted to take that out of it.
And, yes you are remarkably beautiful.
December 5th, 2006 at 9:29 am
I think for me it’s got a lot to do with awe. Seeing God as beautiful reminds me of how amazing He is, and how little I understand.
My little boy, Toby (8 months old), is currently Absolutely Fascinated with the blue LED light on the front of my subwoofer.
He doesn’t understand the whole picture, but seriously, he’s always rolling/commandoing his way to a place where he can just touch it. He adores it. If I left him there he might spend all day looking at it, and touching it. He might also try to eat it, but that doesn’t help the analogy.
Same with us - the concept of beauty I think is deeper than good and wonderful - I’d define it (but not THINK of it) as the absence of significant detraction. But I think of beauty as something that lifts my heart, quickens my pulse, makes me feel good. Perhaps it’s the created aspect of me jumping in sync with God’s nature, but God IS beautiful to me because everything I DO know of Him I find just amazing.
You get your head around God loving me just because HE is love: not even because He made me and wants me to be in relationship with Him, but because His very nature IS love. I can’t help but find that amazing, and because I then appreciate it, beautiful.
And we haven’t even got to him making three part harmonies, cranberries, or allowing Richo to dob one from 55m on the boundary yet.
December 5th, 2006 at 11:42 am
So the problem then is with my interpretation of the word “beautiful” as automatically referring to an outward appearance? Does referring to the beauty of God never have to do with an aestethic appearance, other than in a metaphorical way? If this is true (and I’m very open to finding out that it isn’t), doesn’t it make more sense to use a different term to describe the wonder and awe of who God is, rather than referring to God as “beautiful”, which at least in common cultural use has specific reference to visual qualities.
I’m loving the interaction here - I’m not interested in being right, I’m pretty sure that I’m not, I just want to understand why I’m wrong
December 5th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
I’m glad you picked up on the consequences of Geoff having a “diminished aesthetic appreciation” Bec. Now I don’t have to point it out to stir you.
One of my favourite songs for the last year has been “Beautiful” by Shawn McDonald. (Lyrics here: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/shawn-mcdonald/beautiful.html)
Maybe my theology of divine beauty is a little bit simplistic… but mostly when I think about a beautiful God, I think about that beauty as it’s reflected in creation. I kind of associate it with a sense of awe, as I’m caught up by how big all of that stuff is… but then at the same time it’s something totally personal in the Psalm 139 “eyes saw my unformed body” kind of way.
I too, am just a computer nerd but I think that’s beautiful.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:15 am
It’s a bit like the emperor’s new clothes. Everyone’s going: “They’re like sooo beautiful man!!!”
And you’re like “… um…. keh…. NAKED!”
I think the sincerity of your question, and the simple elegance of your analysis is beautiful.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder… and I love the way that mathematicias find beauty in numbers. One thing that seems to me to be almost universal about beauty, and perceiving beauty, is that it touches more than just your intellect… its an emotional and possibly spiritual experience.
Beauty is something that we don’t understand why it moves and excites us, but it does. I think Geoff, that you find beauty and wonder in captivating ideas.
I think for all the words I’m using, Hannah summed it up better.
I was thinking about the prom. So wild and rugged and dry and sandy and windy and remote and alone and cold and hot and isolated and busy… spiny scrubby, inhospitable, inviting, harsh and lush.
I’m so drawn to it, and so repulsed by it… but most importantly IT MAKES ME FEEL STUFF!
Galadriel in LOTR is beautiful and scary. Gandalf is beautiful and wise and this other thing that doesn’t have a word but means comforting and fierce at the same time. Aragorn is beautiful and noble, and Viggo Mortgensen is beautiful because he is an actor with a genuine interest in horses.
Micheal Leunig is beautiful because he can draw a map of the human soul with just a duck and a guy with curly hair… and because he is one of very few people who can scribble soiled condoms on a lawn and have it published in a national newspaper.
God is beautiful because he created this remarkable world of paradoxes and messy hairy bits and rotting lemon heaps, and all kinds of other stuff that makes me feel things.
God is beautiful just because he made me so I can feel things.
And after having said all that… I still don’t really enjoy standing around singing any song about how beautiful God is repeated endlesly. It doesn’t work for me, and it feels like it means less with every repetition.
But sometimes I think thats because I don’t feel very beautiful myself… and so by focusing on God’s beauty I just feel further away. Maybe this applies to you too Geoff? Do you feel beautiful right now?
Personally I reckon we blokes have lost our freedom to feel beautiful without being gay. Its almost like gay people have a monopoly on beauty and rainbows and happy things. I don’t have any issue with gay people and they are welcome to as much beauty and raibows and happy stuff as they want… but I reckon we should fight for our right to those things too.
So… one thing thats beautiful about me is the way I pour my heart and soul into my guitar, even when it doesn’t sound good.
One thing that’s beautiful about you Geoff, is your thirst for gaining and sharing wisdom, knowledge, ideas, and your childlike pleasure in a really satisfying thought.
One thing thats beautiful about Gerry is his ability to be playful and friendly, and also engage in deep dialogue with younger guys, without having to use his maturity as a claim to superiority.
One thing thats beautiful about Russle Crowe is the shy smile that he sometims gives in interviews when they catch him on a topic that he actually cares about.
I dare you to think of yourself as beautiful for a day, and see if you don’t accidently skip around with a gloriously goofy smile on your face!
December 6th, 2006 at 1:17 am
sorry geoff that was really long
I’ll have to get you to show me how to post things on my blog and then link them to yours in future
December 6th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
I think at least part of your extraordinary comment is on the money: part of the feeling of alienation from the concept of a “beautiful God” comes from not really relating with the idea of a “beautiful Geoff”. I love what you’re saying here Tim, you’ve got the mind ticking over. Thanks
December 8th, 2006 at 10:22 am
totally, beauty is such a personal and many-faceted concept: I wouldn’t say you’re -wrong- Geoff - in a lot of ways (gee, here’s fresh territory…) we’re just down to semantics. Again.
I like Timmeh’s thought about the ownership of manly appreciation of beauty: strange, given obvious notings of the re-casting of ‘manliness’ following us all perhaps losing our identity of manliness - on one side there’s FHM/Ralph and arrogant matesy drinking (we’ve almost left it to the breweries to define what a bloke is now!), and on the other there’s touchy feely fab 5 style maleness; not much in between that’s out there and trendy; but who cares about trendiness?
Hey, it’s like driving that horrible Tiida they lent me: how did I get here?
Sorry, seem to have wandered a bit.
December 13th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
so… G.
what think you about verses like Psalm 27:4?
“One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple”
It seems to point to quite a physical thing (eventually).
and as Donald/Victor said to me on Sunday,
“You can’t put God as beautiful and Rebecca as beautiful in the same sentence” - you can’t class the two together.
December 14th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Two things:
Timmeh’s right again, but Leunig is a bit…uh…out there. Nice cartoons, but I found his Enough Rope interview illuminating. Podcast available…
Anyway.
The other thing is
http://www.thinkchristian.net/?p=1006
is an interesting and timely read.
December 19th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
You can’t analyse leunig…
leunig is like the force (and a little bit like gaffa tape) He has a light side and a dark side, and he holds the universe together.
This is pure cheese…. but you have blasphemed the supreme being… Mr Curly, by disrespecting his humble creator. I am appalled and dismayed.
No wait both those feelings have way too many sylables for me to bother with.
Seriously why are christians determined to learn nothing from anyone who is not exactly like them? Did God create us stupid, or have we learned to be that way?