Reflection on both theology and beauty leads to paradoxes, a disjointedness that the human mind is naturally troubled by. Paradox demands our attention because it has an ugly face that evokes immediate discomfort and confusion (Christ crucified). The beauty of Paschal reconciliation involves the reversal from pain to relief, death to life. Death alone is not beautiful, but death for the sake of life is. Beauty is found not in static identities assimilable by rational thought, but in the miraculous surpassing of the divisions so often posited by it. The resurrection is both beautiful and rational, but in that order. The rationality of the resurrection is disclosed in the beauty of the event itself, that it took place at all—a wondrous, beautiful, truth. To do true theology is to manifest this beauty.
telosbound
Reflection on both theology and beauty leads to paradoxes, a disjointedness that the human mind is naturally troubled by. Paradox demands our attention because it has an ugly face that evokes immediate discomfort and confusion (Christ crucified). The beauty of Paschal reconciliation involves the reversal from pain to relief, death to life. Death alone is not beautiful, but death for the sake of life is. Beauty is found not in static identities assimilable by rational thought, but in the miraculous surpassing of the divisions so often posited by it. The resurrection is both beautiful and rational, but in that order. The rationality of the resurrection is disclosed in the beauty of the event itself, that it took place at all—a wondrous, beautiful, truth. To do true theology is to manifest this beauty.
Full post: telosbound.substack.com/p/the-beauty-of-theology
6 days ago | [YT] | 327