The notion of beauty or “the beautiful” or “the good” in Christianity and Christian thought is central to theological aesthetics. Aesthetics is a dimension of human experience concerned with the nature and meaning of that which is beautiful. The Christian, then, seeks to participate with or become that which is ultimately beautiful. Some theologians argue that beauty constitutes the core of religious life. For others, beauty is a neglected area of thought. Beauty is an experience of the good, which can be associated with God, creation, faith, truth, harmony, or numerous other notions. For some thinkers, beauty begins with God. God is that which is ultimately beautiful—and God’s nature, God’s very being, or who God is, is beauty. In Christian thought, God is beautiful because God is holy and transcendent or above all things. This may be similar to the concept in Islam that suggests that Allah (God) has no associates and is something totally other and distinct from all of creation, including human beings. In Christianity, everything exists by God’s power and divine will. God is the source and reason for everything that exists, including love and benevolence. Conceived as such, God is beautiful.
At the same time, human beings can be beautiful. Perspectives vary regarding just what makes the human being beautiful. Some Christian thinkers maintain that all human beings are beautiful by virtue of being created by God and in God’s image. Since God is beautiful, they argue, human beings are beautiful because they reflect God’s creative work, and they have within them an aspect of the Divine image. On the other hand, while human beings are created in the image of God, they are corrupted by sin, which has separated God and humans. This corruption, theologians contend, can be transformed into that which is beautiful and good through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, who died so that human beings can be reconciled to God. Through Jesus, sin no longer separates humans from God—this relationship with God is what constitutes beauty.
Others maintain that beauty is expressed in human relationships with other humans. Humans are regarded as good when they rise above selfish interests and practice benevolence toward other human beings. It is this self-transcendence or this practice and experience of doing good for others—through charity, ethics, and the pursuit of justice for the most vulnerable and voiceless humans—that makes one beautiful.
The Virgin and Child Embracing by Sassoferrato.
The most socially meaningful notions of theological aesthetics are those that understand beauty as a whole, rather than dualistically— beauty is body and spirit, flesh and soul, not one or the other, which generally ends up referring to the spirit or the soul to the exclusion of the body. Embracing the body as beautiful in Christian notions of beauty, without some of the negative meanings that are attached to it, offers the greatest potential to deal effectively with issues of the body such as race, gender, and sexuality.
