A Discourse about Beauty and Daleks

My sisters are coming home for a visit next week tomorrow! By which I mean, we were expecting them next week but they'll be here tomorrow.  Which, actually, now is today.  Woops. *mental note - I should be cleaning*

In thinking of this I realize - my family always has visitors we're really not expecting.  And most of them are family members we haven't seen in a while.  :) which is great, and lends itself to great stories.  The most recent one is that our cousin Jason came into town on his scheduled visit, but we had forgotten to write down the schedule.  So Jason texted Dad about directions to our house.  Cue mass hysteria.  we had forgotten that he was coming!

But his visit was great, and we had some great conversation.  Which is always nice.  Because I think I was still a little kid last time I saw Jason.  It's nice to finally have grown-up conversations with my grown-up cousins.  Which brings me to the point of this whole thing.  One of our topics was the complete misunderstanding of God on the part of most modern-day thinkers and people in general.

We talked about sublimity - the difference between the Sublime and the Beautiful.  In literary and art and philosophical circles, it's not an unheard of topic.  Philosophers have studied the Sublime aesthetic for a very long time.

Basically what it comes to is this - Beauty makes you feel good.  it's there for enjoyment and pleasure. It inspires contemplation. The Sublime is something different.  The very beauty of something that is truly Sublime is terrifying.  Because that which is Sublime is capable of terrible things - That which makes you long for the experience of the sublime (its beauty) is inherently capable of killing you.  it's like you're a moth attracted to the light dancing from the dew of a spider's web.  You know it's gonna kill ya, but ya can't resist it.  The experience of the Sublime inspires action in response.

The disturbing thing is that we came to the conclusion that our culture has lost the idea of the Sublime.  We think any kind of beauty should be peaceful, should be conciliatory, should bring people together.  But the Sublime has a way of dividing people.  There is not a gray area when one is confronted with the Sublime.  Everything is an extreme.

In consequence of watering down our idea of beauty, our culture has lost depth, vitality and true inspiration.  What's truly tragic is who we have made God into.  Even the church has watered God down from a Sublime being to merely a Beautiful and benevolent benefactor.  The way we worship Him corporately, the way we pray to Him, the way we look to Him takes into account all of His delightful beauty, but subtracts His terrifying glory and power so that we forget we should respond to Him as a Sublime Deity.  That which originally inspired man to worship - the unimaginable power of God combined with his unimaginable Beauty - has been forgotten, and we are left with lifeless worship of dead choruses merely repeating how much we love Jesus.  Like a bunch of drones.  

 

Daleks, from the hit BBC TV series, Doctor Who.  One of my guilty pleasures.

When I worship sometimes, or watch others worshipping, it seems like we're all only going through the ritual - doing what we've been told to do.  It reminds me of some characters from the popular British TV show, Doctor Who.  The Daleks, a race of time-traveling beings whose goal is to become the only life form in the universe because they believe themselves to be superior, constantly chant "Ex-ter-minate. Ex-ter-minate." in a robotic monotone.  The Daleks firmly believe they should kill everything that is not Dalek, because it is not Dalek. They passionately believe in their cause, without having their own inspiration or proper understanding of why they must do what they do.  We may not be out to exterminate all other life forms, but it seems like we're holding on to this form of worship without understanding where the worship comes from.  We do it because we're meant to.  We may even feel something, because we know we're supposed to.  But do we do it because it's the only option left to us when faced by our cultural view (as a Church) of God?

In being confronted with the truly Sublime nature of God, the prophets Daniel, Ezekiel, and John could do nothing but hit the floor and worship.  They saw His beauty, His power, and His glory - and it was too much. It was terrifying, and it was wonderful.  They desired not to leave the LORD, but desired to hide themselves from Him too, because of the power displayed in His Sublime Beauty.  They desired to be close to Him, but knew it was not safe to be close to Him.  Their experience of God was a paradox of sorts.  They loved him so much it hurt, and feared him so much it hurt.  They wanted to be as close to Him as possible, and wanted to be as far away as possible.  They wanted to stay, and yet wanted to leave.

I do have some hope.  When I first began learning about the philosophical idea of the Sublime versus the Beautiful, it was difficult to comprehend.  But there were a few who eventually did - myself, another Christian, and a few Muslim women.  In a class of 250 college students, there were only 5 or so who ever really grasped the idea of Sublime vs. Beautiful - and all of us equated the Sublime with God.  Something Christianity and Islam have in common is this historical fear mixed with longing inspired by the presence and knowledge of God.  And in being confronted with a growing Muslim community in the world (Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States, proportionately), American Christians are beginning to rediscover the proper response to God.

I encourage you all to read Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgement: Book 1 and Book 2.  They lay out an idea of Beauty versus the Sublime which, from a Christian perspective, enriches and enhances one's idea of the Character of God.  The Cliffs Notes version might be the most helpful, if you're not interested in translating the philosopher's jargon.  It's not exactly an easy read.  After reading that, and chewing on it for a few hours (...or days), I encourage you to return in your quiet times to Colossians 1:15-23 and contemplate what it says about Christ.  I think it will enrich your relationship with God and your worship experience.