ST AUGUSTiNE LiKES MY BEARD [this life is but a fragmentary solace]

In one of his discourses about beauty [bk 22, ch 24 of "The City of God"], he says:

Of course, some parts of the human body appear to have no other purpose than to add beauty, as the mamillae on a man's chest or the beard on his face. Certainly if the beard were meant for protection rather than for beauty, it would have served a better purpose for the weaker sex, whose face remains uncovered... I think, that in the creation of the human body, God put form before function.

All of this is Augustine articulating the intricate beauties that we get to partake in. He also talks about architecture, agriculture, navigation, language, rhythm, poise, symmetry, etc, etc. He closes this chapter by saying:

Remember, all these favors taken together are but the fragmentary solace allowed us in a life condemned to misery. What, then, must be the consolations of the blessed, seeing that men on earth enjoy so much of so many and of such marvelous blessings? What good will God not give to those predestined to eternal life, if He gives so much to those who are doomed to death?

i love my son [ontological goodness]

I listen to my own music way more than I should. In a totally unarrogant way, I might be one of my favorite musicians. It's kind of like your opinions. Your opinions are always right, because that's the definition of opinion. Better yet, the composer or creator of a thing always enjoys that which he creates or else the created entity would never come to be.

The past six months of my life have been beautiful for this precise reason. I love my son because he is our son. That is why I have a strange, yet persistent delight in him even if I can't explain it and even if I should be frustrated because he didn't sleep the night before.

Why does this happen? What is the source of this creator/created relationship? How can this relationship be explained?

I'm helped here by our friend Augustine. In Book 11 of City of God, he writes:

The only meaning we can give to the constant refrain "God saw that it was good" is God's approval of a work as having been fashioned in accordance with that art which is His own wisdom.

There is no Creator higher than God, no art more efficacious than the Word of God, no better reason why something should be created than that the God who creates is good.

The explanation, then, of the goodness of creation is the goodness of God. It is a reasonable and sufficient explanation whether considered in the light of philosophy or of faith.

For, God is the kind of artist whose greatness in His masterpieces is not lessened in His minor works - which, of course, are not significant by reason of any sublimity in themselves, since they have none, but only by reason of the wisdom of their Designer.

way too much fun.

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My wife and I had a little too much fun with this. Here are some of the classics:

1984

1958

1966

1994

beautiful and hilarious

beauty

What is it that makes morality moral? And what is it about truth that makes it so truthful? Why is beauty beautiful? Is it really in the eye of the beholder? It has to be somehow, right?

Morality is reality that corresponds with how we relate to each other. Truth is reality that interacts with our minds and intellects. But I think beauty is that bit of reality that satisfies the senses.

Plato's theory of beauty [in "Symposium"], Aquinas' stress on knowing as a part of beauty, Alberti, Shaftesbury, and all others who have contributed to thinking about beauty... all of their thoughts point to a design behind beauty that necessitates both pleasure and relationship for the one who calls beauty beautiful. But what if there was a singular Source that caused beauty to happen? What if that source was not only the means, but the end of beauty?