Jonathan Edwards on beauty

Jonathan Edwards, born 300 years ago on October 5, made a contribution to Christian understanding of the highest order. This article will tap into his thoughts on beauty and art.

The nature of true beauty

Art has a God-given duty to express truth beautifully and beauty truthfully. As we are to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4.15), so art must speak the truth in beauty (love, truth, goodness, beauty and glory are inseparable transcendentals). The ultimate purpose of art is to glorify God, showing his glory and drawing us to him.

The true beauty (glory) cannot be separated from godliness. Umberto Eco tells us, 'When Medieval Scholastics spoke about beauty they meant by this an attribute of God'. They were not wrong, Jonathan Edwards taught the same. Two aspects of beauty especially were said to reflect God's nature: i) poise and balance, best expressed by the terms used to describe the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5.22-23); ii) 'unity in diversity'.

Every attempt to define beauty must begin, end and travel all the way in the light of Christ himself, the one in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2.9). The things he has made reveal the invisible things of God (Romans 1.20; John 1.3). Common grace gives art the ability to express divine qualities of beauty and truth even in a fallen world. So, for example, when Sir Simon Rattle claims that the symphonies of Beethoven bring a message of hope - 'a benediction' - in strife-worn times, he is saying something wholly in line with what Jonathan Edwards understood. All beauty is God's self-expression and by speaking truth in beauty art glorifies God. Let's see how this can be.

The parts of true beauty

'It is hard to define beauty. It defies description. Words are inadequate and to analyse beauty is unkind and unnecessary. We feel beauty, we observe it, we respond to it and we thrill to it whatever form it takes.' But with the vocabulary of Scripture we may identify certain features of the mystery of beauty. Contemplating Christ through the prism of Scripture we may trace the physiognomy of beauty. We identify poise and balance, simplicity, sonority, harmony, joy, vitality, unity in diversity, inevitability, modesty, reserve, peace, purity, glory, truth and above all, love. In Christ 'the divine Logos descends to manifest and interpret himself as love, and therein as the Glory. This happens when the Logos proclaims himself love and grace, and as such the Glory (the divinely beautiful: doxa), and thus precisely as the truth (alatheia, John 1.14)'. Music is able to express qualities of truth simply because it is able to express beauty - two parts of a transcendent counterpoint.

Jonathan Edwards and true beauty

1. Beauty and the graces of godliness.

Jonathan Edwards taught that true beauty and true virtue are one. True virtue seeks above all other things the glory of God. True virtue is love of and a delight in that which is truly virtuous and good - the graces of the fruit of the Spirit.

'God is infinitely the greatest and most beautiful Being, all beauty to be found throughout the whole creation is but the reflection of the diffused beams of that Being who hath an infinite fullness of brightness and glory.
'The more virtuous, the more godly someone or something is the more true virtue delights in it. And because God is supremely and infinitely good a person of true virtue delights in him more than all else. So true beauty always seeks God's glory.'

Edwards believed this also to be true of God himself. God is supremely virtuous and so he delights most in what is supremely virtuous - himself!

'True holiness must mainly consist in love to God, for holiness consists in loving what is most excellent and beautiful. Because God is infinitely the most beautiful and excellent being he must necessarily be loved supremely by those who are truly holy. It follows from this that God's own holiness must consist primarily in love to himself. Being most holy he most loves what is most good and beautiful, that is himself. To love completely what is most completely good is to be most completely perfect. From this it follows that a truly holy mind, above all other things, seeks the glory of God, and makes the glory of God his supreme, governing, and ultimate end.

2. Beauty in unity in diversity.

Edwards describes unity in diversity, as 'a mutual consent and agreement of different things', something that is truly virtuous and beautiful. Edwards thought music provided a special example of this. The sweet mutual consent and agreement of the various notes of a melodious tune ... is uniformity in the midst of variety. Unity in diversity is an element of true beauty because there is in it some image of the true spiritual original beauty - the union of spiritual beings in affection of heart (the shared love within the Trinity). Unity in diversity is, of course, an essential element of every musical form - horizontally in melody, form and time; vertically in harmony.

3. The function and purpose of beauty.

Edwards held the view that God has so contrived nature that beauty, especially the harmony of sounds, has a tendency to assist those whose hearts are under grace to the exercises of divine love and enliven in them a sense of spiritual beauty.

Beauty and the glory of God

To define beauty as Edwards did in terms of the glory of God is a truly biblical approach. The Old Testament has a variety of words for 'beauty'; some link beauty with majesty or pleasantness, most however with glory.

The OT word rendered 'beauty' frequently means majesty or excellency, and points to the glory of God.

'We behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ' (2 Corinthians 4.6). In whatever form we contemplate his face we see the glory of God, whether resplendent in transfiguration, transformed in resurrected exaltation, or blood and spittle-smeared in the abandonment of crucifixion - there indeed 'full of grace and truth'! (Here we need to recognise that 'beauty' - commonly understood - is not the same thing as glory. The 'glorious' form of Christ is marred as well as beautiful, embracing the cross and desolation.)

Beauty and Christian music

A consequence of this is the recognition that what is truly beautiful is truly Christian. 'Christian music' too often is superficially identified as music set to 'Christian' words. Because the words are 'Christian' the music must be. But this won't do. 'Christian music' is not necessarily music to 'Christian' words, or music written by Christians, or music written to be used in Christian worship. Christian music is music that meets the Christ-defined standards of beauty and truth. Often it will be music without words - music too deep for words and often serving no 'religious' purpose. But if music expresses beauty and truth, it can with every justification be classed as 'Christian'. The principle is that as 'all truth is God's truth' so all beauty originates in him, belongs to him, and points and draws us to him.

Music and the glory of God

Common grace allows fallen (very fallen!) human beings to create what is beautiful and therefore true. But only saving grace brings the sensitivity that enables us to see in what is beautiful the radiance of God's glory, only saving grace allows this beauty to promote in us the growth of Christian virtues, and only saving grace gives the ability to respond to beauty in ways that glorify God. Henry Martin found, 'since I have known God in a saving way, painting, poetry and music have had charms unknown to me before'.

How is it possible for art to glorify God? Jonathan Edwards helps us here too. He taught that God is glorified by 'a presentation of that which commends the nature of true virtue' - by being truly beautiful and beautifully true. Edwards identifies four qualities necessary for this:

* The expression of God's perfection in their proper effects.
* Manifestations of God's glory to created understandings.
* Communication of infinite fullness of God to the creature.
* The creature's highest esteem of God, love to, and joy in him.

According to Jonathan Edwards, music glorifies God when it reflects his glory, that is when it is Christ-like: expressing truth and beauty (or rather glory - including what may be painful and searing), communicating love, joy, peace; whatever is noble, just, pure, and lovely (Philippians 4.8). In other words music glorifies God when it plays before the Lord (2 Samuel 6.5,14).

Art has the potential to put us in mind of the likeness of Reality so that through art we may experience what is similar to the Reality itself. In an infinite number of ways art and music are able to communicate to us the likeness of heavenly Reality, bringing delight and wonder, and above all stimulating in us the desire for the heavenly Reality himself - God in Christ!