Why Beauty?

This is my journal entry from July 31, 2020.

Following my afternoon walks, I am sitting on the porch sipping tea and crunching a couple of cookies, just enjoying sun and clouds with a gentle breeze at 77 degrees, I’ve been watching the sparrows come and go at the feeder, remembering the sapphire blue hummingbird at that feeder from Wednesday. I’ve gotten to identify three individual sparrowns: Neck with no feathers on the back of her skinny neck, Tail who has a prominent tail feather about an inch below most of her tail, and Wing who has a feather sticking out below the shoulder of his right wing. Knowing that birds molt, I don’t know how long I will be able to recognize these distinctives. 

Also noticing lots of brightly colored flowers and very green grass and tree leaves against the blue sky in our well kept neighborhood.

All of this reverie has me pondering a question that has flitted through my mind over the years. Why is there beauty?

I know philosophers and a wide variety of theologians (not just from Judeo-Christians traditions) have explored things like beauty, truth, and love. I have neither the intention nor the ability for chasing down those rabbit holes. Nor do I think I have anything to add. I am just following the whims of my reflections on a pleasant mid-summer afternoon.

My recollection of my reflections on this question in years past is that beauty is a sign of some sorts of intelligent design - a God who enjoys beauty and creating beauty. When I say intelligent design I am not at all thinking about young earth proponents or evolution opponents in some Christian circles. In fact, I find those perspectives mar the wonder of beauty.

Yes, culture and context contribute to the defining and understanding of what is beautiful. And those constructs change with time even in a single culture. 

Male appreciation of female beauty (not wanting to get into LBGTQ issues here, so just take this as an older, hetrosexual male in middle class US in the late 20th and early 21st centuries). I just want to explore a bit of the impact of culture on understanding beauty. Well proportioned women with prominent but not excessively large breasts, round hips, tapering to round but not protruding belly, soft (long?) hair, smooth skin, high cheekbones. And so something from the context in which I came of age. I do have memories of the bullet bras of the 40s that have given way to more natural curves. The super skinny of the 20s flappers (and some models yet) have given way to a more healthy “real” proportions. Drawing on other cultures and times, rounded bellies were signs of fecundity that were considered desirable. The Song of Solomon uses some imagery that amuse us today, but I don’t think they were funny to them.

Another example in a different direction is how forests were viewed by the early settlers from Europe in the “new world.” We see them  as places of  exquisite beauty and wonder, but those early European settlers saw the forests as threatening in terms of both wild animals and native populations, and even spiritual menace (witness, for example, the Jersey Devil and other similar legends).

In the Mosaic Law, the cities were considered safe because people were around to come to your aid if needed, while rural roads were dangerous where thieves might attack (for example, in Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan). But we tend to see rural  areas and small towns as safer than cities and urban neighborhoods. 

In my previous reflections on beauty, I posited that color is not essential to the functioning of the universe or this earth, nor are the myriads of shapes of living things. We could have had a functional black and white world and universe with shades of gray and everything in simple, functional geometric shapes. But of course, we don’t, so colors mean much more than their functions. Somehow delight radiates. As Genesis says, God saw that it was good - meaning, I believe, much more than “it works.”

So I am speculating that something about God loves and enjoys beauty, both creating it and beholding it. I don’t intend to be anthropomorphic but only to suggest that beauty is somehow intrinsic to the nature or character of God. Alongside love, which seems even more essential both biblically and from a wide range of contemplative traditions.

Do any of the creatures other than humans recognize and appreciate beauty? I am not suggesting I have any insight into that, but some animals certainly seem to enjoy play. We see that in our pets: dogs and cats. Otters and seals seem to frolic as do sea mammals - whales and porpoises. I’ve heard that horses enjoy running. Is having fun and enjoying play the same as or akin to beauty? Thus, conjecturing that the nature of God is expressed in the beauty of creation (the whole universe, not just our human observation of our earth, sea, and sky.)

Yet clearly we humans consider the observation and appreciation (even artistry and creation of) beauty as essential to our human identity and experience, even though we vary in how we understand and identify beauty from time to time and culture to culture. Theologically, is this an expression of being made in the image of God? Is not beauty a link for humans to the divine, to God?