Exploring how beauty can save the world: reflections on the lecture by Greg Wolfe at Whitworth

By Eric Blauer

I had the pleasure to attend a lecture at Whitworth University by Greg Wolfe, founder and 26-year editor of Image Journal, a leading faith/art/literary magazine. He’s also the author of “Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age,” as well as other books, articles and editorial compilations.

Wolfe’s talk revolved around the cultural and religious necessity of beauty. He led us through a passionate apologetic for what the ancient greek philosophers called ‘the three great transcendentals: ‘Beauty, Truth and Goodness.’ Through the use of quotes, paintings and pop culture images, he made a convincing case for the place of beauty in connecting truth and goodness with the post-Christian mind and heart.

I was surprised to discover through his lecture that Pope Benedict XVI had some profound thoughts on reclaiming the power and place of beauty in life and faith. I must confess, I’ve not been the biggest fan of the previous pope, so at first, my ecclesiastical prejudice was barking in my head. But after hearing some of his quotes and then following up with some reading myself, I’v been won over by his defense.

“Falsehood, however, has another stratagem. A beauty that is deceptive and false, a dazzling beauty that does not bring human beings out of themselves to open them to the ecstasy of rising to the heights, but indeed locks them entirely into themselves. Such beauty does not reawaken a longing for the Ineffable, readiness for sacrifice, the abandonment of self, but instead stirs up the desire, the will for power, possession and pleasure.” – Pope Benedict XV

Another profound observation he explored was that when beauty is held in it’s proper place with truth and goodness, it take’s us “outside ourselves or de-centers us.” It becomes the means to move us beyond ourselves and enter the reality of the other. It’s a bridge of community and compassion. It awakens us to the worlds, ideas and experiences beyond ourselves and yet it is still personally pleasurable.

Wolfe referenced the paradoxical concept of “Terrible Beauty” coined by the poet William Yeats. This understanding can enlighten us to the Christian understanding of the cross in redemption. It enables us to see that beauty can be reached in contemplating events that are terrible in certain aspects. There is beauty in playing out a life of love with a commitment to truth and goodness, even if it cause us to suffer terribly.

“He, too, has been changed in his turn,

Transformed utterly:

A terrible beauty is born.”

-William Butler Yeats, Easter 1916

Wolfe ended the lecture with a look at Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s provocative sculpture: ‘Ecstasy of Saint Teresa’ 1647-52 located at the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.

This is Saint Teresa’s description of the event that Bernini depicts:

“Beside me, on the left, appeared an angel in bodily form. He was not tall but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest rank of angels, who seem to be all on fire…. In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he pulled it out I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, nor is one’s soul content with anything but God. This is not a physical but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it—even a considerable share.”

After looking the sculpture and reading St. Teresa’s account of her spiritual experience, one can easily see why this member of the transcendentals is often held suspect in some religious circles. But Greg showed how “Beauty leads to pleasure and pleasure shows us that beauty is good.” This relationship leads us to understand and experience beauty, truth and goodness in a way that is salvific in the Christian sense.

Wolfe ended the lecture with a close up shot of the moaning face of St. Teresa in Bernini’s sculpture. It was a moment of provocative silence that was a mix of profound longing, desire and hunger for the reality that all these words, pictures and ideas tempted you to discover.