The Beauty of Grace,and the Grace of Beauty

Most of us have known someone who stood out for having a special ease and courtesy in interacting with people.  Whereas most of us are uneven in our interactions, such people have a wonderful, graceful steadiness.  When we are in the presence of such people, we can feel the beauty of such grace.

There is also a grace in beauty itself.  Encountering something beautiful can allay our anxious spirits, and give us a boost in facing our next step in life.  We can encounter such beauty in a painting or a piece of music. But our experiencing grace can be even greater if the beauty is something in Nature itself.  Such as a sunset.  Or a field of wildflowers.  Such natural beauty can be more powerful because we know, at least subconsciously, that it was not constructed by human hands.  We experience such natural beauty as a gift -- something that need not have been.

However, there is an old debate:  Is what we experience as beauty really a part of the natural world itself, or is it something merely in the eye of the beholder?  Traditionally most Christian preachers have treated the beauty experienced in Nature as really being there, and as a reason for praising God the Creator.  But skeptics who insist that the beauty we sense only seems to be in Nature have as a spokesperson the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume, who wrote, "Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them."

That debate seems to be critical -- a debate over whether beauty is a gift from God or just an illusion.  However, could it be that such a contrast is too starkly drawn?  Instead of framing the matter as an either-or choice, could it perhaps be more insightful to explore a both-and answer?  That is to say, to explore how the grace of beauty is both in the external world and in my perception.  Beauty is experienced where the two intersect.

Even though we people are variable in our capacity for perceiving beauty, we can name recurring kinds of features in beauty.  Such as when a contrast -- such as of colors or sizes -- which could be felt as discordant is instead experienced as creating a harmony.  If such colors or objects were not really in the world, we would not exclaim, "How beautiful!"

True, my experience of beauty does depend upon an internal act of perception.  But that does not make it any less an example of grace.  Just as there is order within the external world, there is remarkable order within my sensory organs and brain, which makes possible my perception of beauty, even if it is culturally nurtured.  That such order exists in human makeup is also a grace, a gift.

The transcendent aspect of beauty has led religious thinkers to see beauty as one window into God.  The great medieval Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas depicted God as being Ultimate Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.  And one of the sayings of Islam is:

"God is beautiful and loves beauty."

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What are the effects of beauty upon you?  Where do you encounter beauty in Nature?

(The Hume quote is from Essays, "Of Human Tragedy," and is taken from

 Bloomsbury Treasury of Quotations, ed. John Daintith, © 1994, p. 54.)

(The Islamic saying is from the Hadith of Muslim, and is taken from
 World Scripture:  A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts.  © 1991.  p. 88.)