Simply Christian - Chapter 4

For the Beauty of the Earth

This was by far the most difficult chapter for me to get through, to this point; although I can not figure out why it was so hard for me to get through.

There were four parts to this chapter, the transience of beauty, beauty and truth, beauty and God, and the glorious complexity of life. The transience of beauty section was all about how we can never catch beauty, just the memory. Even as we see something beautiful it leaves us longing for more and unsatisfied. So the world if full of beauty but that beauty is incomplete, we’re not fulfilled by what we experience. Wright uses and example that (because I am such a nerd) really hit home with me. “The teacher for whom the geometric proof possesses an almost transcendent elegance discovers that, to the class, it is nothing but numbers, lines, and angles.” I don’t know how many times I get so incredibly excited during a lecture about some physics concept about how amazing it is that it all fits together so nicely and it works the same way every time! And I look out into the classroom and they’re just staring at me like I’m some freak of nature because I’m excited about physics. Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder or is there some ‘absolute beauty’ that everyone will look at or experience and say to themselves, “that was exquisite, absolutely beautiful”?

The section on beauty and truth addresses that statement, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” But what one person considers beautiful is different from what another person considers beautiful. Even the same person several years down the road will have a different opinion of beauty than they did when they were younger. Wright uses the example of Plato’s men in the cave, although not using the exact story using the philosophical theory, to talk about our world and the world of “the Forms” (or Ideas). In other words, our world is just a shadow of the “real thing”. But if this world is just a shadow does it really exist? What about the whole “I think therefore I am” statement?

The section on beauty and God asks if this world is a reflection then what is it a reflection of? Wright makes the statement that “We [Christians] say that the present world is the real one, and that it’s in bad shape but expecting to be repaired.” I liked this statement. I know I need to be repaired and I’m only a teeny tiny fragment of this world.

The glorious complexity of life. This section title stands alone all on its own. Life is so incredibly complex and yet it’s also so simple. Wright quotes a scientist as saying, “whether we are looking into a microscope at the smallest objects we can discern, or gazing through a telescope at the vast recesses of outer space, the most interesting thing in the world remains that which is two inches or so on the near side of the leans – in other words, the human brain, including mind, imagination, memory, will, personality, and the thousand other things which we think of as separate faculties but which all, in their different ways, interlock as functions of our complex personal identity.” There are five things (to start with) that we do to show our complexity and our simplicity; we tell stories, we act out rituals, we create beauty, we work in communities, and we think out beliefs. If we take away any of these things then human life seems to be diminished. How boring would life be if we couldn’t tell stories? We wouldn’t be able to share about our days so we wouldn’t have any outside information other than what we ourselves experienced. What about not working in communities, not being able to do things with other people, having to always do things on our own? I don’t know about you but I would go “stark, raving MAD!” to quote the snake from Disney’s Robin Hood (I’m hearing the echoing voice as I type it).

Wright ends the chapter, and the first section of the book, by saying, “We must begin to talk about God. Which is like saying that we must learn to stare at the sun.” I’m very interested to see where Wright is going to take these concepts that he’s set up in the beginning of his book and how exactly he’s going to tie them all together.