2018 Update

It is fairly obvious that I did not write frequently in 2017. Only three posts does not justify a website. It is, however, an improvement over 2016. Looking on towards 2018, it is my desire to write a post every two weeks (#progress). I am fairly certain this means that there will be weeks where the writing suffers from a lack of creativity, depth, or truth. And I’m okay with that. To try to avoid that however, I think it is key to have some categories that I will be thinking through, specifically as it relates to the intersection of truth and beauty.

You see, when beauty incarnates into humanity, it always stands in relation to truth. What we find satisfying on an intellectual level is often tied up with our grasp of its innate beauty. Look no further than the cross. Its ugly beauty can only be viewed through its truth, that the God-man saves. Which means most of the time when things strike us as truly beautiful, we are making statements about what we find truthful. Beauty is a carrier for truth and truth carries beauty. I don’t know about you but I try to minimize the weight of truth that beauty must carry. Let’s call this a consumer aesthetic. Beauty is to be consumed, whether that’s sex or money or food. And yes, food is able to be beautiful. Which is why most of us are so dissatisfied when Christmas is over. We all thought it was going to be this day where our idea of beauty was fulfilled in the consumer aesthetics. Presents aren’t bad, but it’s a horrible idea to put your standard of beauty on a future garage sale. There’s no truth aspect of Santa and thus, the consumer aesthetics encapsulated in our Americanized idea of Christmas actually perverted the true beauty. When an atom is split, it erupts in explosive devastation. So it has been for Homo Sapiens to idealize a standard of beauty without a standard of truth. I hope to “prove this” and it’s okay if this doesn’t resonate but when all is said and done, and eternity future is eternity present, we will behold the Absolute Beauty-Truth, the Glory of God.

To see how truth, beauty, and culture play out we must look at the epitome of this: Jesus. I’m not going to spell out a theology of God, but for now it will be enough to note that whatever He is, He is Absolute– Absolute Beauty-Truth. This is important— when God incarnates into human skin, Jesus incarnates into a specific culture. Jesus was a Jewish man in a Jewish land and hence, he was very Jewish. There is a cultural application of beauty that results in an appreciation for truth. It is vital that truth and beauty resonate within culture and this is what I seek to do.

So thus, my categories will range from the complex to the simple. I have recently finished a book called A Secular Age, which is pretty critical philosophy, in my opinion. I hope to work out some of its implications in the coming weeks. I also want to take some misconceptions about theology and doctrine and think through them in a beautiful way. At some point, I’d like to start having posts from people that aren’t like me (white males) and see truth and beauty further incarnated into other cultural contexts. It will be fun to look back a year from now and see how my writing has improved and how my thoughts have developed. My prayer is that Christ would be all in all and this would be evident through this small site.