Beauty is your inner self

01Aug
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment… Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
-1 Peter 3:3–4
 
May the beauty of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.
 -Psalm 90:17 


The first time I spoke of Beauty as the non-verbal heartbeat of my relationship with God was in architecture school in 1976. I was participating in a design studio taught by the internationally renown architect Richard Meier. Meier is known for his finely wrought, elegant buildings composed of white panels and members; interrupted only by glass and space. The studio assignment was to design a “cathedral” for a site of our choosing.

 

When a marquee architect teaches a studio, there is self-imposed pressure for the student to design in the style of the teacher. One imagines it is how you get a celebrity to have kind words for your work. I did not get the memo on the value of ring-kissing. I chose to design a replacement for the cathedral at Coventry, England, which the Germans bombed during World War II. It was a commission that had already been fulfilled by the architect Sir Basil Spence in the 1950’s. I chose the Coventry site because it had as its center the ruin of the original gothic Cathedral. It was an artifact of beauty defiled in war with a story of yearning for redemption.

 

I made my presentation and waited for the celebrity feedback. My building was stone and brick and used the ruin as a device for choreographing the telling of a story of the Christian pilgrim’s journey of yearning for communion with God. The journey moves from aspiration and striving, through violence and suffering, to redemption and revelation. When I finished, I waited. The vaunted celebrity spoke. “Marsden, I don’t know what to say…you’re a hopeless Romantic.” I thanked Mr. Meier. I do not think his remark was a compliment. He asked, “What do you want the worshiper to experience?” “Beauty.” I answered. Mr Meier shook his head and scoffed.

 

My answer was not a rational or scholarly response. It may have been rooted in my study of St Augustine years before in college. It was an answer that seemed to have been waiting for its moment.

 

For Augustine, beauty is one of the transcendentals—qualities like truth and goodness that are how we understand being. God is Being itself, therefore God is Beauty itself. When we create beautiful things we are giving voice or point-of-view to the transcendent Beauty that is God. It is why music, art, written word, inspired performance, dance and selfless space-making are not icons of our own cleverness. They are our hands at work signing the language of Beauty, pointing us toward God.

 

As a Christian pilgrim, as an artist, as a space-maker, I have learned there are collateral promises implicit in the journey from beauty to Beauty. There will be struggle. There will be failure. Humility will be required because, as a steward of Beauty I will have to admit my failures and hug the cactus in public. Then I learn as I yearn.


Musical Reflection - Whilst Great is Our Poverty - Cyrillus Creek

Late have I loved You, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved You. Amen.

-St.Augustine, Confessions X, 27

Beauty

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