Christian Philosophy: Aesthetics

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In this post of this Christian philosophy series, we'll have a brief and summary look at aesthetics. Aesthetics is "A set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art."[1] So, what is Christian aesthetics? In other words, what is a Christian set of principles about what beauty is and how beauty is appreciated? We're not going to focus on the "especially in art" aspect, because, if we find out what this set of principles is, we'll know how it applies to art. Finally, because this set of principles is distinctly Christian, we need to learn it from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And the Word of Christ (Colossians 3:16) is the Bible (2 Timothy 3:15-17; cf. John 1:1-18).

So, what does Christ teach us beauty is? In Psalm 27:4, we see the phrase "the beauty of the LORD." So, there is a beauty that characterizes God. And we must remember this: before He created anything, ONLY God existed. In eternity past, there was nothing else but God. Nothing else WHATSOEVER. So, if we want to know what beauty truly is, we must understand God's beauty, for this beauty is eternal, and therefore this beauty must be the standard for beauty. However, we've left an important question unasked: what exactly is beauty? The answer lies, again, in Psalm 27:4: the psalmist says that he desires and seeks after the opportunity to behold God's beauty. So, beauty is something that gives joy to someone to behold. To make it more concise, beauty is what the beholder enjoys to behold. So, God's beauty is His character as it is enjoyably beheld by people. And since God is invisible (Hebrews 11:27), He is beheld, not by physical eyes, but by meditation on His self-revelation in His Word.

This is a summary of Christian aesthetics: beauty (i.e. true beauty) is God-likeness (and more specifically, Christ-likeness), whereas ugliness, logically, is godlessness and Christlessness.

[1] https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/aesthetics