{"id":2662,"date":"2021-07-23T07:37:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T07:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/?p=2662"},"modified":"2021-07-23T07:37:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T07:37:59","slug":"beauty-and-the-cosmos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/beauty-and-the-cosmos\/","title":{"rendered":"Beauty and the Cosmos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Beauty and the Cosmos<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ernesto Cardenal says that we can argue about the reason for the universe and about the meaning of the universe, but not about the\u00a0beauty<\/em>\u00a0of the universe.<\/div>\n
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Annie Dillard comments that “unless all ages and races… have been deluded by the same mass hypnotist (who?), there seems to be such a thing as beauty, a grace wholly gratuitous.” We all share beauty. It strikes us indiscriminately. It may be when our child is born into this world, or a simple flower; or a song; or a smile on a face; or a great act of courage; or a dance well done; or a child\u2019s laugh; or a loaf of bread baking; or finding a worthy job; or a snowfall; or laughter between friends; or the death of a loved one returning to his or her Source.<\/div>\n
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A newborn star shoots twin jets of superheated gas out from its rotation axis into space at more than 100,000 miles per hour as a sort of birth announcement to the universe.\u00a0Image<\/a>\u00a0credit: NASA\/ESA\/STScI<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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There is no end of beauty for the person who is aware. Even the cracks between the sidewalk contain geometric patterns of amazing beauty. If we take pictures of them and blow up the photographs, we realize we walk on beauty every day, even when things seem ugly around us.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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The Navajo people have a prayer that deserves to be sung daily by all of us:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I walk with beauty before me<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I walk with beauty behind me<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I walk with beauty above me<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I walk with beauty below me<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I walk with beauty all around me<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Your world is so beautiful, Oh God.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Pre-modern peoples understood “God as Beauty,” but the modern era threw out the word “Beauty” as a philosophical category much less an ethical one.\u00a0 In addition to the Navajo prayer above, listen to these other pre-modern thinkers:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Eckhart says: “This then is salvation, to marvel at the beauty of created things\u2026.”
\nAquinas says God is a “fountain of total beauty” and “beauty itself beautifying all things.” Indeed, God who is “supersubstantial beauty, is called beauty because God bestows beauty on all created beings.”<\/div>\n
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Greek Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart observes that beauty “is wholly elusive of definition\u2014it never makes sense to say, \u2018This is beautiful because\u2026\u2019\u2014and yet it is inescapable in its force\u2026.Beauty is gloriously useless; it has no purpose but itself.”\u00a0 He cites Kabir who claims that all delight in beauty is adoration of God and Thomas Traherne who encourages us to “recognize creation as the mirror of God\u2019s infinite beauty.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Nicholas of Cusa calls Wisdom “a supreme and terrible beauty” that can unite people of all religious differences. The Sufi tradition declares: “God is beautiful and God loves beauty.”<\/p>\n

To forget beauty is to advance injustice.\u00a0 Justice heals and is beautiful; injustice is ugly.\u00a0 Racism turns its back on the beauty of people different from oneself.\u00a0 Surely, a big part of the eco destruction we call climate change is due to the fact that beauty was lost as a theological and ethical category in the modern era.\u00a0 Eco-destruction is ugly after all.\u00a0 Eco protection and restoration is beautiful.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n

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Adapted from Matthew Fox,\u00a0Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth,\u00a0<\/em>pp. 48f.<\/div>\n
\u00a0 And Matthew Fox,\u00a0Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God\u2026Including the Unnameable God,\u00a0<\/em>pp. 56f.<\/div>\n
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To view Matthew’s video, please click the image. You will be taken to today’s post on the Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox website, where you can see the meditation in a larger version and also view Comments from meditation participants and answers to questions that are posed.\u00a0 In this way a kind of community is developing around the DM.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
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Queries for Contemplation<\/p>\n
Is Beauty a name for God in your language and thinking and action?
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Recommended Reading<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God \u2026Including the Unnameable God<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Too often, notions of God have been used as a means to control and to promote a narrow worldview. \u00a0In\u00a0Naming the Unnameable<\/em>, renowned theologian and author Matthew Fox ignites our imaginations by offering a colorful range of Divine Names gathered from scientists and poets and mystics past and present, inviting us to always begin where true spirituality begins: from experience.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beauty and the Cosmos   Ernesto Cardenal says that we can argue about the reason for the universe and about the meaning of the universe, but not about the\u00a0beauty\u00a0of the universe. Annie Dillard comments that “unless all ages and races… have been deluded by the same mass hypnotist (who?), there seems to be such a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Beauty and the Cosmos”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2663,"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662\/revisions\/2663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourtrueinfosource.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}