I am going to assume this morning that there is a God who is personal and who created all things. There are not many atheists who come to church and so the only evidence for this assumption that I lay before you is this: if there is no personal God then the concept of beauty dissolves into personal idiosyncrasy. That is, unless beauty is rooted in God's mind rather than your mind, every time you say, "That is beautiful," all you really mean is, "I like that." Unless there is a God, your praise of beauty can be no more than expressions of your own personal preferences. But I think there is in every one of you a dissatisfaction with the notion that your judgments about beauty have no more validity than your preference for coffee over tea. And I think your dissatisfaction with pure subjectivism and relativism is a remnant of God's image in your soul and evidence of his reality. It is an echo, however faint, of a voice that once called you into being.
1 comment:
I love that painting. Did you get that quote from a book or sermon? I remember once in some college class we were trying to define beauty, and it was pretty much impossible. But this puts it into perspective!
Gret
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