The Gospel and Aesthetics A number of scriptures present a rich and textured view of beauty and the Gospel. Consider, for example, these two verses: Isaiah 53:2 ! 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. (Also see Mosiah 14:2) Psalms 90:17 17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. Or any of the following, which, taken together, offer a very profound—and rather complex—definition of “beauty.” Doctrine and Covenants 42:40 39 For it shall come to pass, that which I spake by the mouths of my prophets shall be fulfilled; for I will consecrate of the riches of those who embrace my gospel among the Gentiles unto the poor of my people who are of the house of Israel. 40 And again, thou shalt not be proud in thy heart; let all thy garments be plain, and their beauty the beauty of the work of thine own hands; 41 And let all things be done in cleanliness before me. 1 Nephi 11:8 8 And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me: Look! And I looked and beheld a tree; and it was like unto the tree which my father had seen; and the beauty thereof was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty; and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow. Proverbs 31:30 30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

1 Chronicles 16:29 29 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. (This is one of several scriptural references to “the beauty of holiness.”) Matthew 23:27 27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

Ezekiel 28:17 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Doctrine and Covenants 137:2 2 I saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter, which was like unto circling flames of fire. Here are several foundational ideas on beauty from the philosophical school of Aesthetics; they may work to inform our perspectives on the significance of beauty and the Gospel. “Now since the good and the beautiful are different (for the former always implies conduct as its subject, while the beautiful is found also in motionless things), those who assert that the mathematical sciences say nothing of the beautiful or the good are in error. For these sciences say and prove a great deal about them; if they do not expressly mention them, but prove attributes which are their results or their definitions, it is not true to say that they tell us nothing about them. The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness, which the mathematical sciences demonstrate in a special degree. And since these (e.g. order and definiteness) are obviously causes of many things, evidently these sciences must treat this sort of causative principle also (i.e. the beautiful) as in some sense a cause.” —Aristotle, in Metaphysics (Book XIII) “By beauty, as distinguished from the sublime [which Burke describes as something than inspires astonishment and perhaps some degree of terror], I mean that quality or those qualities in bodies by which they cause love, or some passion analogous to it. I also distinguish love, or the satisfaction which arises to the mind upon contemplating anything beautiful, from desire, which is an energy of the mind that hurries us on to the possession of certain objects. In what does beauty consist? The usual answer to this question has been that it consists in certain proportions of parts; but I very much doubt whether it has anything at all to do with proportions. Proportion is the measure of relative quantity; but beauty has nothing to do with mensuration and, as a matter of fact, the parts of plants and animals which are found to be beautiful are not constantly formed upon certain measures. —Edmund Burke, in “Sublime and Beautiful”

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede ! Of marble men and maidens overwrought, ! With forest branches and the trodden weed; ! Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought ! As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! ! When old age shall this generation waste, ! Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe ! Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, ! "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," —that is all ! Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. —John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/odeonagrecianurn.html And  we  might  think  of  one  category  that  opposes  beauty,  “kitsch,”  in  terms  of  spiritual  truth  and  imitation.    “The  kitsch  object  is  commonly  understood  of  one  of  that  great  army  of  ‘trashy’  objects,  made  of  Plaster  of  Paris  or  some  such  imitation  material:  that  gallery  of  cheap  junk—accessories,  folksy  knickknacks,  souvenirs,  lampshades  or  fake  African  masks—which  proliferate  everywhere,  with  a  preference  for  holiday  resorts  and  places  of  leisure.      “To  the  aesthetics  of  beauty  and  originality,  kitsch  opposes  with  its  aesthetics  of  simulation:  it  everywhere  reproduces  objects  smaller  or  larger  than  life;  it  imitates  materials  (in  plaster,  plastic,  etc.);  it  apes  form  or  combines  them  discordantly;  it  repeats  fashion  without  having  been  part  of  the  experience  of  fashion.”        —Jean  Baudrillard,  in  The  Consumer  Society:  Myths  and  Structures    It’s  enlightening  to  think  of  these  historical  ruminations  on  beauty  as  they  relate  to  the  teachings  of  modern  prophets.    Consider,  for  example,  this  excerpt  from  a  talk  given  by  President  Hinckley.    “I  believe  in  beauty.      “The  earth  in  its  pristine  beauty  is  an  expression  of  the  nature  of  its  Creator.  The  language  of  the  opening  chapter  of  Genesis  intrigues  me.  It  states  that  ‘the  earth  was  without  form,  and  void;  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep  (Genesis  1:2).  I  suppose  it  presented  anything  but  a  picture  of  beauty.    "’And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light:  and  there  was  light’  (Genesis  1:3).  And  so  the  Creation  continued  until  ‘God  saw  every  thing  that  he  had  made,  and,  behold,  it  was  

very  good’  (Genesis  1:31).  I  interpret  that  to  mean  that  it  was  beautiful,  for  ‘out  of  the  ground  made  the  Lord  God  to  grow  every  tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight’  (Genesis  2:9).    “I  believe  in  the  beauty  of  nature-­‐-­‐the  flowers,  the  fruit,  the  sky,  the  peaks  and  the  plains  from  which  they  rise.  I  see  and  believe  in  the  beauty  of  animals.  Is  there  anything  more  regal  than  a  magnificent  horse-­‐-­‐its  coat  brushed  and  clean,  its  head  held  high,  its  gait  a  symphony  of  motion?    “I  see  and  admire  beauty  in  people.  I  am  not  so  concerned  with  the  look  that  comes  of  lotions  and  creams,  of  pastes  and  packs  as  seen  in  slick-­‐paper  magazines  and  on  television.  I  am  not  concerned  whether  the  skin  be  fair  or  dark.  I  have  seen  beautiful  people  in  a  hundred  nations  through  which  I  have  walked.  Little  children  are  beautiful  everywhere.  And  so  are  the  aged,  whose  wrinkled  hands  and  faces  speak  of  struggle  and  survival.    “May  I  be  personal  for  a  moment?  I  sat  at  dinner  across  the  table  from  my  wife  the  other  evening.  It  was  fifty-­‐five  years  ago  that  we  were  married  in  the  Salt  Lake  Temple.  The  wondrous  aura  of  young  womanhood  was  upon  her.  She  was  beautiful,  and  I  was  bewitched.  Now,  for  more  than  half  a  century,  we  have  walked  together  through  much  of  storm  as  well  as  sunshine.  Today  neither  of  us  stands  as  tall  as  we  once  did.  As  I  looked  at  her  across  the  table,  I  noted  a  few  wrinkles  in  her  face  and  hands.  But  are  they  less  beautiful  than  before?  No,  in  fact,  they  are  more  so.  Those  wrinkles  have  a  beauty  of  their  own,  and  inherent  in  their  very  presence  is  something  that  speaks  reassuringly  of  strength  and  integrity  and  a  love  that  runs  more  deeply  and  quietly  than  ever  before.    “I  believe  in  beauty-­‐-­‐the  beauty  of  God's  unspoiled  creations,  the  beauty  of  his  sons  and  daughters  who  walk  without  whimpering,  meeting  the  challenges  of  each  new  day.    “I  believe  in  the  beauty  of  good  music  and  art,  of  pleasing  architecture,  and  of  good  literature  untainted  by  profanity  or  verbal  filth.    “My  dear  young  friends,  there  is  so  much  of  ugliness  in  the  world  in  which  you  live.  It  is  found  in  the  scarred  earth,  the  polluted  waters,  the  befouled  air.  It  is  expressed  in  coarse  language,  in  sloppy  dress  and  manners,  in  immoral  behavior  that  mocks  the  beauty  of  virtue  and  always  leaves  a  scar.  But  you  can  rise  above  this  and  revel  in  the  beauty  to  be  found  with  a  little  effort.”    The  talk  in  its  entirety,  which  will  reward  your  reading,  can  be  found  here:      http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7077