What is the best thing you have to devote to the Kingdom of God? It is the talents God has given you.
Discourses of Brigham Young, 445
What is the best thing you have to devote to the Kingdom of God? It is the talents God has given you.
Discourses of Brigham Young, 445
Excerpts from Chapter One: A Mighty Change of Heart Section Three: The Matter of Beauty Herman C. du Toit, Ph.D. From his book, Masters of Light: Coming unto Christ through Inspired Devotional Art The Raising of Lazarus, Carl Bloch Ideas about art and beauty have always been closely aligned. However, there are few terms that have stirred more controversy, consternation, and contention in the modern art world than the concept of beauty. Everyone seems to know what beauty is, but there is little agreement as to its expressions, and to how it is manifest in artworks. The term is used in the scriptures candidly, unequivocally, and without qualification. The scriptures do not doubt the reader’s ability to identify, appreciate, and give expression to the notion of beauty. There is a clear understanding about what is meant when we read in the Old Testament that Rachel, one of Laban’s daughters, was “beautiful and well favoured” (Genesis 29:17, emphasis added). We also have a uniform understanding of what was meant when Artaxerxes was inspired to “beautify the house of the Lord” (Ezra 7:27, emphasis added). Beauty is also found in the manner in which the Lord has ordered and organized the elements of His creations; in the variety with which rivers, plains, mountains, lakes, and seas, were created and distributed across the Earth. Likewise we have a mental concept of what was meant by the commandment given to the Israelites to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (1 Chronicles 16:29, emphasis added). This usage signifies another, deeper meaning of the concept. The scripture “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who bringeth good tidings” (Isaiah 52:7, emphasis added) tells us that beauty is manifested by the righteous action of prophets who proclaim the Gospel from the mountaintops—an action that dispels fear and hopelessness. Here beauty is seen as a countervailing force exercised in the face of darkness, despair, and ungodliness. Beauty is manifest in the very act of righteousness overcomes evil, is evidenced when love overcomes hate, and is apparent when harmony, order and unity prevail over chaos, discord, and contention. This concept is exemplified in the simple words of the Church hymn: “There is beauty all around when there’s love at home.” The problem that the modern secular world has with the concept of beauty lies in the fact that the word has attendant meanings that allude to qualities such as charm, grace, loveliness, comeliness, fairness, authenticity, attractiveness, appropriateness, nobility, harmony, and divine order, among others. For Thorvaldsen, Bloch, Hofmann, Schwartz, and other academically trained artists of their period, beauty was a function of all these qualities, rooted in finely executed pictorial realism. These positive and uplifting qualities, associated with beauty, point to universal normative values that are often reflected in righteousness. Aristotle saw this relationship between the beautiful (to kalon) on the one hand, and virtue on the other hand. He argued that: "Virtue aims at the beautiful." It is this relationship between beauty and virtue that has caused consternation in a secularized world that strives to divest beauty of its normative values, or more stridently, to denigrate the very concept of beauty because of its attendant normative values. In modern times the academic art world in particular, appears to have taken issue with the concept of beauty, and especially the values associated with it. The term is rarely used in college art programs. It invites censure in to say something is beautiful in within a formal academic setting in a secular world that rejects universal values. Such statements are often deemed to be uniformed and unqualified value judgments based on subjective personal sentiment. Contemporary art schools would rather encourage self-expression and the cult of idiosyncratic egocentrism than risk alignment with values that are inexorably and universally linked to beauty. Art has the capacity to transcend the mundane, providing us with a glimpse of a more perfect and beautiful reality that often lies just beyond our mortal experience. Art has the power to edify and inform us in ways that words cannot, as stated so aptly by David Cassler, a contemporary LDS artist: “Art beckons you to that which we are meant to become. Art points to a time when heart and mind will be unified. It points to humankind's ultimate spiritual potential. Art speaks of a place where we need not look through a glass darkly, where we will know as we are known. It speaks of truth, love, happiness, and beauty.” Inspired devotional art points us to the universal values associated with beauty through the skillful representation and meaningful interpretation of supernal qualities that abound in Heavenly Father’s creations. It has the capacity to reveal the divine order of all things. Consequently, it has the power to unite Heavenly Father’s children through the commonalities of their appreciation of these things. Hence beauty becomes a handmaiden to the divine precepts of salvation that are carried into the hearts and minds of those who would receive them and who are not blinded by callous ignorance, hubris, egotism, skepticism, and the philosophies of men. We have been instructed that “Zion must increase in beauty, and holiness” (D&C 82:14). The appreciation and promulgation of undefiled beauty as a countervailing force in the conflict between good and evil, order and disorder, harmony and chaos, cannot be underestimated. It is an antidote to the ungodliness of the unrefined carnal condition of the natural man. Inspired devotional art has the capacity to refine our sensibilities, put us in touch with the divine order of things, including our own divine nature, and facilitate our coming unto Christ. Book published by Cedar Fort Publishing and Media, Springville, Utah (2016)
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Articles & TalksThis is the place to find inspiring articles and elevating talks on the arts which reinforce a spirit of excellence, holiness, and beauty.
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