The True Nature of Beauty

06 Jun

For as long as I have been a church-going Christian (basically, most of my life), pastors have begun sermons with a joke, an interesting story, or ancedote. If the story isn’t amusing, entertaining, or well-told, something crucial is lost, we start checking our watches. Even if the story may be technically accurate, it will fall flat, and probably not permeate the carefully constructed barrier surrounding the average person’s soul. But truly amusing or captivating stories contain, at the very least, some kernel of truth. The funniest jokes are those where you end up saying “That is so true!” It is the secret to the success of comedian Jerry Seinfeld whose clever observations of our mundane lives have us ROTFLMHO ( That’s the Christian version – Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A** Hinnie Off). Nowdays, we have the Church Video to add to this arsenal to help wake up the pew-sitters. A new tool with which we can use the time-honored phrase “If that doesn’t light your fire, maybe your wood’s wet!” A personal (guilty church pleasure) favorite of mine.

The recent flurry of activity surrounding to Gary’s piece on Collide about Church Video Standards, prompted me to add my voice to the discussion. There are many beliefs that I hold dear to my heart that seem to go hand in hand with this topic. Primarily, the true nature of beauty. His statement that … “Content in not King. Beauty is” has rattled many in the church media community, perhaps as it should, due to our long standing belief that Content is King and that form is secondary to function. Bad news Content, you’ve just been de-throned! Ok, well, maybe its not as simple as all that. Let’s take a look at beauty, and get to the heart of what I believe Gary is really on to here.

For me, I believe that beauty is inextricable from truth. I don’t believe that you can have one without the other. There are those that would argue that there may be many cases where you view art that is well-crafted, and visually pleasing, but tells a story that goes against fundamental principals that we hold to be true. To this I would say “You are correct Sir (or madam)!”

But “every good an perfect gift comes from God.”-James 1:7 Without God there would be no such thing as beautiful lighting, creative camera angles, the golden ratio, faithful rendition through clever codecs, etc. It is only by the true creator that we have these means to tell whatever story is being told. Whether or not we agree with the message, if the medium is done artfully, it contains truth. The reality is that none of our messages, be they conveyed with words printed or spoken, sung, played, filmed or otherwise, will be a completely accurate portrait of the Truth. And this I believe is due to the fact that we are doing our best to know and understand an infinite God with finite minds. Everything we do to try and understand Him, is but a small reflection of some facet of His nature. A great question is, to what purpose are we using these “reflections of truth.” They can some times be muddied and manipulated to serve our own agendas, but in doing so, the human condition is exposed, and we are left with an opportunity to see our true relationship to the Creator.

I believe that God leaves clues to the nature of this relationship in His creation. Consider the way in which our eyes work. We must have light to see. Everything we take in through our visual senses, is a reflection of light. Everything looks the way it does, based on the way that it reflects light. It is dependant on light to be seen. Apart from light, there can be no color. Apart from God, apart from Truth, there can be no beauty.

It is a wonder to me that God in his infinite creativity, wisdom and knowledge made trees. Trees with which we would harvest wood to not only build shelter, but craft into instruments like violins, guitars, etc. Take a moment to listen to a cello played by someone like Yo Yo Ma, and tell me if you can’t hear the voice of God on some level. Even when these instruments are coupled with lyrics or ideas that run contrary to our deep beliefs, the almost mystical beauty that comes from the reverberating wooden hollows belongs to God and would fail to exist apart from him. Its amazing that he entrusts us with such beauty.

Now beauty is a very large thing. It encompases such a vast expanse of the human experience and imagination, that it allows us to develop things such as taste. As we know, what may beautiful to one, is not beautiful to all. This subjectivity is part of God’s plan. It is part of His infinite nature. It tells us more of our particular nature, our particular conditioning based on our experiences, than it does our ability to judge objectively what is beautiful or ugly. Our personal experiences determine our proclivity for one thing to resonate as more beautiful or true than another. It is a combination of our rational mind, paired with our emotional heart, that we determine whether something is really of value, and worthy of living, or changing our lives for. If it looks, sounds, and feels good, but we can not intellectually get behind it, we are not fully committed to it. The converse is also true. It must contain both elements to be truly soul-satisfying.

When it comes to having a Standard for Church Videos, I believe the best way for this to occur is to develop within both the producers and the consumers, an understanding of what will best illuminate the truths that have been given us through the bible and the lives we live in relationship with God. Being a subjective thing, it would be impossible to put to fine a point on what is “correct” video/filmmaking practice. For most every rule, you can probably find a good example of someone who has broken it, and been the better for doing so. The question should be, does this piece resonate with truth? Can it cut through our defenses, and permeate both our hearts and minds? As, Christians, we should strive not to simply mimic the quality and styles of those who believe differently than we do. It should be to find truth and honor it in a way that is useful, and pleasing to God, the greatest artist of all.