Sympathetic Beauty
I have been doing up a series of talks for an organisation on the subject of beauty.
As part of that presentation, I spoke about Aquinas’ criteria of beauty, one of which was criterion of symmetry (taking after the ancient greek concept of symmetria or “harmony”). We find something beautiful because there are harmonious features that form part of that beautiful thing’s makeup.
However, in that presentation I also spoke of beauty, not only as some objective transcendental, whether in terms of a characteristic of God up there or a property of being down here. I went further to speak of property as a visible property of being. By this I meant that the transcdental of Beauty is capable of, in Luigi Giussani’s terminology, becoming a factor of our experience. We do not simply see beauty, but are capable of experiencing beauty. The harmony in the physical makeup of a thing, is also instilling us an experience of that harmony, or more accurately, a sense of belonging. Beauty in the beautiful thing instills a sense of belonging in us.
The ancient author Psuedo-Dionysius the Areopagite, which Thomas actually refers to constantly, had this great line in a work called “on the Divine Names”. In it, he said that the beautiful is the “cause of harmony, sympathy and community. It unites all things”.
This is probably for me the most striking part about Beauty, Beauty is not just telling us about what we should or should not like, Beauty is actually communicating sympathy to us. Sympathy because, as Joseph Ratzinger once put it, it locks the yearning of the human heart. It is not only saying you have desires, but Beauty also unlocks that desire in sympathy. In a way our experience of this harmony is an experience of receiving sympathy, and wanting to belong to a community that shares in that sympathy. This is one of the hidden powers of Beauty, it has the capacity to build bridges across divides, and also open a door into which a sympathetic community is waiting to welcome you.
Support Awkward Asian Theologian on Patreon, and help make a change to the theological web.
