Von Balthasar, a fine Roman theologian, wrote somewhere that beauty makes demands, and suggested that this is a natural analogy to the attitude of faith, which is like an aesthetic response to the form of Christ.
Beauty makes demands. If I hear the central movement of Beethoven's Appassionata or Bach's Cello Suite in G Major or any of a dozen other pieces of music, I can't do anything else. I've got to listen. Try not breathing deeply when you catch a whiff of hyacinth or lavender. Try not looking at a beautiful landscape, a beautiful building, a beautiful woman. It's possible not to look, rather it takes an act of resistance, a rebellion of sorts.
We can appeal to this to establish the objectivity of beauty. If beauty were purely subjective, could it command attention, could it fascinate, could it surprise?
1 comment:
beauty and symmetry. they say that the most beautiful people in the world are the ones with the most symmetrical faces.
children are drawn to beautiful faces, they stare and stare at lovely faces when they see them.
this post reminded me of an idea I had, and I like the way it is phrased "beauty makes demands", but it's not in the way you understand a demand. it compels you irresistably, the way that children cannot stop staring at beauty.
I imagine heaven this way. I imagine that this is why none can see the face of God and live. We would be so irresistably compelled in our mortal flesh that we could not withstand it or resist it.
"blessed are those who have not seen me, and yet believe."
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