The Aesthetic Experience: Why the Grand Canyon is beautiful and concrete walls are not – Part 1

In the early morning just as the sun is peaking over the rugged hills, the tranquil Sea of Galilee always stirs something within the person that whispers, “That is beautiful…”  The aesthetic experience is a common occurrence among all persons regardless of ability, social class, education, or gifts. What unifies this aesthetic experience? Is there a common foundation among all persons?

 

Brief Description of the Aesthetic Experience

What qualifies as an aesthetic experience? Can all experiences become an aesthetic experience or is there a unique qualification for the aesthetic experience? I think the aesthetic experience is a form of absorption where the moment sweeps up the observer in itself. The aesthetic experience is the savoring of an attitude or aura. The aesthetic experience is the enjoyment of the moment in and of itself in a conscious yet unconscious way. Seemingly then all experiences can become aesthetic experiences if that experience is enjoyed in and of itself.

 

Relationship of the Arts and Theology

In relationship to the arts, the aesthetic experience can only fully bloom when interacting with a work of art. Nature itself is the artwork of God and thus most fully initiates the aesthetic experience. I personally enjoy nature and like spending time hiking and camping in nature. I just love to absorb the natural wonders from the massive mountains with varied rock faces to the small moss that clings to the trees.

In relationship to theology, the aesthetic experience is the knowledge of God seen in reality. The sublime plays a major role in our aesthetic experience with God, for God is immense and mysterious. He is terrifyingly holy and beyond comprehension. Yet He is compassionate and immanent. These tensions we see in God form the sublimity of God.  When we see what we know of God correlating with our life, we then aesthetically experience God in a unique way.

Marsden’s Reforming Fundamentalism

George Marsden currently is a professor at the University of Notre Dame. Marsden’s book Reforming Fundamentalism is the premier monograph about the birth and demise of New Evangelicalism as a movement. Marsden surveys this movement by documenting the founding and early history of Fuller Theological Seminary (FTS) – the primary fountainhead of New Evangelicalism. The title, Reforming Fundamentalism, accurately reflects the ideals of the original founders of FTS. The division between Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism did not happen until several years later (1957); thus, the original founders of FTS (founded in 1947) were themselves Fundamentalists and called themselves Fundamentalists (p. 10). In fact, it wasn’t until 1957 that Harold Ockenga popularized (but did not create) the term “New Evangelicalism” (p. 3).  

 

Broader evangelicalism is a massive conglomeration of Protestant beliefs, and New Evangelicalism has influenced many of these beliefs. Every serious student of theology and every pastor should read Marsden’s work in order to appreciate and evaluate the recent conservative, American heritage they inherit. Reforming Fundamentalism is a fast paced read and will captive the attention like a good novel except Reforming Fundamentalism is thrillingly true.  

 

Evaluation of Reforming Fundamentalism

Strengths:

• Mardsen seems to write from an unbiased, objective viewpoint on a controversial subject. 
• Mardsen writes the early history of FTS as a narrative with plot rather than an institutional history book. Mardsen centers book on key people rather than strict chronological dates. The book develops theme of reforming fundamentalism rather than the mission statement of the school or raw history of FTS.
• Mardsen is careful to distinguish between Fundamentalism of the 1950s and narrower contemporary Fundamentalism (p. 300). Mardsen recognizes that broader Evangelicalism and New Evangelicalism are not the same rather New Evangelicalism as a movement was absorbed into broader Evangelicalism

Weakness:

•   Marsden seems to associate the Fundamental-Evangelical (1950s Fundamentalism) cause with Dispensationalism (p. 76). Though the Dispensational macro-hermeneutic was typical of Fundamental-Evangelicals, Dispensationalism was not an issue that defined a Fundamental-Evangelical.

 

See Summary of Reforming Fundamentalism by D. Borkert for a brief survey of the contents of Reforming Fundamentalism.

Aesthetics: Why the Grand Canyon is beautiful and concrete walls are not

The theory of beauty (aesthetics)  is often neglected in contemporary Christian thought. Last spring, I enrolled in a philosophy class entitled Aesthetics because I thought it was an interesting, underdeveloped field in my academic circles. When a speaker addresses aesthetics, it is always in the context of music; and usually the speaker fails miserably in his evaluation. But before launching into a discourse about aesthetics, I want to question the relevance of studying aesthetics.

 

The Validity of Aesthetics

Who cares about the study of beauty? I personally really struggle with the validity of studying the arts especially the fine arts (e.g. painting, sculpture, and art music). To me, devoting ones life to art almost seems like a waste of time. Nevertheless, the arts do affect our lives more than we probably realize. Practically, every webpage you visit or sign you look at has some kind of design whether intentional or not. Even the books and newspapers you read are formatted into a specific font or layout. The arts affect our daily lives, and they serve an important and valid purpose.

 

The Relevance of Aesthetics

How then does the study of beauty (aesthetics) have any relevance?

First, aesthetics helps define art or at least strives to define art. What is art? What I described above was a more functional art – but what about art for art’s sake? How does nature connect with aesthetics?

Second, everyone seems to have their own idea of what is beautiful although with great overlap (otherwise we couldn’t have genres of music, art, or writing that people enjoy together). Aesthetics then asks the question – how do we define beauty? Is there an objective standard of beauty outside of us?

Third, all art affects us in some aspect whether it inspires us, arouses us, or simply bores us. What is the aesthetic experience? What place does ugliness play in the beautiful? And does art have any moral affect upon us? Often philosophers make a connection between the beautiful (aesthetics) and the moral (ethics).

Fourth, personally I am very interested in the ramifications of theology upon aesthetics. What is the effect of our unrelenting bent to evil on our idea of the beautiful? How does the gospel affect our concept of the beautiful? How should we reflect the beautiful in the church? How do we engage the arts from our theological perspective? How does the imagination express itself in our theological beliefs?

I’m sure you could think of many more questions. I just hope to stimulate thinking in an area that receives very little, serious thought among most theologians and Christians. 

 

Not another blog!

Why start blogging? There are literally thousands of blogs about every subject, and most are a waste of time to read. Also a blogger needs no qualifications in order to write about any topic on his or her blog. I could start a massive blog about Entomology (study of insects), and without any background in the field, I could probably write some really technical sounding stuff that is completely false. The moral of the story is that blogs can be unreliable sources of information. Even so, they provide a good forum for voicing ideas that need thought and often provide good leads for more reliable sources of information (e.g. book reviews, peer-reviewed articles, news sites, lectures). In the theological world, blogs provide a sort of thermometer for the current ideas on people’s minds. For several years now, I have been the guy who reads a lot of blogs but doesn’t ever comment on what I read. I highly recommend Google Reader for managing all the blogs you read since you can quickly browse the blog you want to read and delete the ones that are uninteresting.

So why am I starting a blog? First, I was inspired by Abraham Piper’s blog entry about 6 reasons pastor’s should blog. I’m not a pastor but someday I hope to participate in similar ministry. Second, I’m at the point in my life where I am able to start a blog. I am finishing my MA and transitioning into another school and thus will hopefully have more time to write. Anyway, we’ll see what happens.