The Art of Truth
After much deliberation, I have finally decided upon the true focus of my blog. The idea was taken from an article by Joseph Pearce entitled The Evangelizing Power of Beauty on the topic of cultural apologetics:
Truth is trinitarian. It consists of the interconnected and mystically unified power of reason, love, and beauty. As with the Trinity itself, the three, though truly distinct, are one. Reason, properly understood, is beauty; beauty, properly apprehended, is reason; both are transcended by and are expressions of love. Reason, love, and beauty are enshrined in and encapsulated by the Godhead. Indeed, they have their raison d’etre and their consummation in the Godhead.
Remove love and reason from the sphere of aesthetics and you remove beauty also. You get ugliness instead. Even a cursory glance at most modern “art” will illustrate the negation of beauty in most of today’s “culture.” Once this theological understanding of the trinitarian nature of truth is perceived, it follows that the whole art of apologetics can be seen in this light.
As a diehard, tried and true Tolkien fan, I am familiar with this form of apologetics simply because of the Catholicism that work is steeped in. There have been so many books on the theology of The Lord of the Rings one might think it’s like beating a dead horse by now. The same with any work by C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, etc. There have been so many Catholic writers over the years who have utilized their work to evangelize. These cultural apologetics, or indirect apologetics, have effected just as much if not more conversion among readers as apologetics of reason have had on society. The beauty of language, of which I am an ardent admirer, has an amazing power to evangelize.
In Campion’s and Southwell’s day the Catholic faith was illegal. Today, in our own endarkened age, it is no longer illegal but is considered illegitimate. It is in the very midst of this darkness that beauty enlightens the gloom. Great art. Great music. Great literature. They are all great weapons. Giotto, Raphael, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico. Weapons! William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Anton Bruckner, Arvo Part. Weapons! Dante, Shakespeare, Hopkins, Tolkien, Waugh. Weapons!
They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Why not use it to draw others to Christ? In this vein, I intend to use my blog to do just that. I will be focusing primarily on the apologetics of literary works, past and present, as well as poetry, essays, and maybe a few of my own works thrown in the mix every once in a while. Along with this refocusing will come a redesign and change of content throughout. This may take a while, but I will try to post as often as possible.
In closing, I’ll leave you with a little bit of a preview. This comes from Joseph Southwell, a Jesuit matryr:
Let folly praise that fancy loves, I praise and love that Child
Whose heart no thought, whose tongue no word, whose hand no deed defiled.
I praise him most, I love him best, all praise and love is his,
While him I love, in him I live, and cannot live amiss.
Love’s sweetest mark, laud’s highest theme, man’s most desired light,
To love him life, to leave him death, to live in him delight.
He mine by gift, I his by debt, thus each to other due,
First friend he was, best friend he is, all times will try him true.
