John-Mark L. Miravalle - Beauty: What It is and Why It Matters

John-Mark L. Miravalle

Beauty

What It Is and Why It Matters

SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS

Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2019 by John-Mark L. Miravalle

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover by David Ferris Design.

On the cover: Church of the Savior (HM7P19) Marina Pissarova / Alamy Stock Photo.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Quotations from English translations of papal encyclicals are from the Vatican website (http://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html) Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Miravalle, John-Mark L., 1982- author.

Title: Beauty : what it is and why it matters / John-Mark L. Miravalle.

Description: Manchester, New Hampshire : Sophia Institute Press, 2019.

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019007895 ISBN 9781622827121 (pbk. : alk. paper) ePub ISBN 9781622827138

Subjects: LCSH: Aesthetics Religious aspects Catholic Church.

Aesthetics Religious aspects Christianity. Aesthetics. Christianity

and art.

Classification: LCC BX1795.A78 M55 2019 DDC 111/.85 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019007895

Contents

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Conclusion:

Postscript:

Foreword

I still recall the young seminary students reaction to entering the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Amiens for the first time in 1972. So vast was the interior, so balanced the architecture that he felt swept off his feet and thrust forward. Everything he saw pulled him up and away toward the sanctuary, a reminder that Gothic cathedrals were built to make a statement. Anything beautiful does.

Before and since that time, this arresting moment was certainly not unique. I have seen many a beautiful building or painting, heard breathtaking music, read sublime literature, and attended superb dramatic productions. My youthful experience in the Gothic cathedral, however, was a palpable moment in which a sense of weightlessness was the abiding reaction to the presence of beauty. As an old German friend of mine said, Unhappy people do not construct buildings like this. No, they dont, and by extension they bring happiness to the beholder as well. I cannot help but think that this happiness is based on the conviction that truth, beauty, and goodness exist and that the art that endures is the art that surprises us with this shock of recognition. In a cynical world, this perspective is a needed antidote.

Professor Miravalle embraces a formidable task in his short but significant volume. In his own words, The basic thesis throughout this book is that recognizing the goodness of things, and taking delight in that goodness , is a core moral obligation. Before we can speak of moral obligation and imperatives, however, we must acknowledge that art attracts and that it does so by way of beauty. Exploring this concept, Professor Miravalle synthesizes the various thinkers on this subject, beginning with St. Thomas Aquinass profoundly simple definition of beauty, that which pleases when seen, and continuing on with the insights of Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine, down to our own age with the contributions of Jacques Maritain; Pope St. John Paul II; Pope Benedict XVI; and Roger Scruton to name only a notable few.

This question as to why beauty attracts remains, for me, the issue, and the answer is found in surprise. Professor Miravalle introduces the topic in the third chapter, Order and Surprise, and develops a crescendo with it into the fifth chapter, Temptations away from Beauty. This reaches its climax when he writes:

Those who forget the intrinsic connection between order and surprise will think they have to pick one or the other. These are the two temptations... the temptation to pursue surprise without order (which is disorder ) and the temptation to pursue order without surprise (which well call banality ). If human beings have been designed for beauty and we have and if beauty involves surprise, then weve all been designed for surprise.

The wow moment the sensation of being in the presence of something thrilling, something larger than ourselves, not something superficial but transcendent, something we never thought possible this moment is the result of recognizing our human purpose. There is beauty in that moment, and the moment exists because of beauty. Surprise, as the result of an encounter with beauty, makes a connection that affirms both the human and the divine. It affirms balance, order, and a longing for the transcendent. God is, after all, the God of order, not chaos.

Surprise is what makes us stand agape before Michelangelos Last Judgment , close our eyes at the strains of a Chopin melody, or float weightlessly upon entering a medieval cathedral. What is so marvelous is the realization that we might not be the only ones surprised. Perhaps someone else is as well. In the experience of beauty, there is something at once democratic and aristocratic. In being surprised, we have cast our vote, but in the election, we detect the uncovering of something more permanent, transcendent, and universal. Some would call this experience harmonious and exactly what the world desperately needs today.

Professor Miravalle has made a valuable contribution not only to the discussion of the moral demands of beauty but also to the understanding of what makes beauty so necessary for a fuller human life.

+Glen John Provost
Bishop of Lake Charles
October 5, 2018

Acknowledgments

This book began as a course offering at Mount St. Marys Seminary, where they are generous enough to let me teach theology. Id like to begin by thanking the men who enrolled in that first section, for their engagement and insight, which helped immensely in the revision of this final publication: Jim Bors, Michael Castiblanco, Stephen Felicichia, Peter Ferguson, Jared Grossman, Daniel Koehl, Keeton Lockwood, Esteban Mallar, Andrew Meyer, Paul Miller, Robert Murphy, Nico Quintos, Peter Rettig, and Matty Traceski.

Thanks very much to His Excellency Bishop Provost for reading the manuscript and supplying the foreword, and to all those who were willing to read or discuss the themes that went into this project: Joseph Miravalle, Ed ODonnell, Fr. Steve Beseau, Tony Dilulio, Charlotte Ostermann, and Fr. William Goldin.

Thanks, as always, to Jessica, for everything in general and in the case of this book, for support, for proofreading, and for thoughtful and direct criticism, all of which are totally indispensable to ensure that any of my writing is any good.