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Exploring the Truth Goodness and Beauty of God in art, music, poetry, literature and the prayer-life of the Roman Catholic Liturgy
About Me
- Perry Lorenzo
- Seattle, Washingotn
- I am a Roman Catholic, a member of St James Cathedral parish in Seattle, the Director of Education for Seattle Opera. I am a fan of Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theological Aesthetics, and a joyous supporter of Pope Benedict XVI. I am interested in Gregorian Chant, opera, classical music, and the writings of Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, Sayers, and Dante.
2 comments:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
- John Keats (my favorite philosopher)
This, of course, is the famous "Analogy of Being"--that all Being (either God or created beings) share four characteristics or attributes-----Unity, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.
Keats' own verse, in the "Ode to the Graecian Urn", however, though beautiful & true in itself, risks reducing the Analogy of Being to a mere aesthetic creed of Art for Art's Sake, removed from any other Truth, removed from morality and the Good, and indeed removed from the real life of ordinary people. Keats' saying exemplifies the risk of Romanticism, that Romanticism is a heresy of Christianity--a running off with one part of the Truth, to the exclusion of others.
Yet . . .yet . . .yet . . .the Romantic Creed is both True and necessary for us today, since our modern life is so empty and ugly and meaningless. We need Keats' poetic saying, as a glimpse of the real Beauty of created beings and of god their Creator.
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