BEAUTY:The Aesthetic Order

Part 6 The Secondary Mandate – Teach that Which Transforms

• Session 6.24 Secondary Task # 2:Teaching that Which Transforms – Internal Self- Government

• Session 6.25 Secondary Task # 2:Teaching that Which Transforms – All That I Have Commanded: Creation Ordinances

• Session 6.26 TRUTH: The Metaphysical Order (a)• Session 6.27 TRUTH: The Metaphysical Order (b) -

The Principles of Freedom• Session 6.28 GOODNESS: The Moral Order• Session 6.29 BEAUTY: The Aesthetic Order

The Text

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Overview of this Secondary Task

• Teaching that which transforms– Obedience – Internal Self-Government, the

key to transformation – All that I have commanded – Jesus is the law-

giver – Transcendent Ordinances

• Meta-physical Laws – TRUTH • Moral Laws – GOODNESS • Aesthetic Laws – BEAUTY

Outline

• Behold the Beauty of the Lord

• God’s Art Communicates

• Man’s Art Communicates– Human art leads to either life or death

• Life enhancing culture• Death creating culture

– Elements of great art

Behold the Beauty of the Lord

In the beginning…

GOD created…

the heavens

and the earth.

Think on These Things!

• Questions:– What is the most beautiful thing you

have ever seen? – What makes it beautiful?

– What is the most hideous/ repugnant thing you have ever seen?

– What makes something hideous?– What is the difference between being

ugly and hideous?

The Grand Canyon

Horse Head Nebula

Pregnant Mother

Garden

Flowers

India

Images from Tolkien

The Forest

The River

“Illumination”

• Read Genesis 1: 3-5, 14-19 and Rev. 21: 23-26

• Questions:– Why is it significant that there was light before

the creation of the sun, moon and stars?– What does it mean that there will be light in

the heavenly city, but no need for sun and moon?

The Nature of God• Set # 1:

– Read Psalm 48: 1-3; 50: 1-2; 96:4-6– Question: What does this “place

name” for God reveal about God?

• Set # 2:– Read Psalm 29: 1-2; 96: 7-9; 2

Chron. 20: 21– Question: How are we to worship

God?

• Set # 3:– Read Psalm 27: 4; 90: 17; Matt. 17:

1-2;2 Cor. 3: 17-18– Question: When we look at the Lord,

what do we see?

God Is Light

• Read– Set # 1: Psalm 4: 6; 27: 1-2; 1 Jn. 1: 5– Set # 2: John 1: 6-9, 14; 2: 11; Matthew 17:

1-7– Set # 3: Ps.104: 1-2; Hebrews 1: 3

• Questions– How does God reveal himself?– What does light do?

God’s Art CommunicatesBeauty Is God’s Messenger

Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son (1669)

• What can you learn about Rembrandt by studying his painting?

• Look at the father’s hands!

Isaiah 40: 25-26

25 "To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. 26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one,

and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

Psalm 19: 1-4

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language

where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

God’s Art• What does God’s creation (art) reveal

about :– God (The First Artist)?– Man?– Creation?

The Scripture Begins and Ends in Beauty

• The Garden of Eden• The 1st Wedding

• The City of God• The Wedding of the

Lamb

Begins in a Garden

Ends in a City

Man’s Art Communicates

The Cultural MandateHands to Cultivate the Soil

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Genesis 2: 15

Mind and Heart to Cultivate the Soul

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

Genesis 2: 19-20

‘Joy’J.R.R. Tolkien

“…The peculiar quality of the ‘joy’ in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth…”

J.R.R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf (London: Unwin Books, 1964), pp. 61-62

Art is to reflect: Truth, Beauty and Goodness

“In nations where the Bible has highly influenced language, law and culture, the fine arts reflect beauty, truth and moral goodness. When the Bible has not been an influence or has been removed as the seedbed of language and culture, the fine arts reflect the corruption and debasement of beauty, truth and moral goodness.”

Dr. Elizabeth YoumansThe Fine Arts and Literature

Aesthetic OrderElements of Beauty

Elements of Great Art

Technique – excellence

Artistry – the ability to stir the soul

Content – to show forth the glory of God

Order – moves towards coherence and harmony

Human Art Leads to Life- Enhancing or Death-Producing

Culture

The Nature of Culture

• Life Enhancing• Begins with the Creator

• Based on reality

• Imparts joy and hope

• Is transformational

• Leads people to what is good for them

• Death Producing• Begins with man

• Based on illusion

• Leads to hopelessness and despair

• Is de-formational

• Draws people into what harms them

Culture

• Questions?– Where do you see art that

enhances life today?– Where do you see “art”

that produces death and despair today?

• Individuals and nations can live in a more beautiful world.

• They will produce:– More beauty and less vulgarity– More wholesomeness and less

decadence– More splendor and less dreariness– More anticipation and less tediousness– More harmony and less dissonance

The Benefit of the Aesthetic Order

What will you do?

• Questions:– As an aspiring or practicing artist,

what can you do to move your art medium to better reflect Truth, Beauty and Goodness?

– As a “hidden artist” what can you do to restore beauty into your home, community, place of work or place of worship?

Teach them to obey all I have commanded:

The Aesthetic Order