Following our discussion of Christian Aesthetics, we began with the unnecessary nature of creation. We then talked about the divine fellowship within the unity of the Godhead, and the nature of their love for one another, and what implications that had on our lives. This installment will address the divine difference within the Trinity. Hart continues discussing the Trinity, for it is the foundation of our understanding of all of life, and therefore our appreciation of life: beauty. Lets begin with two quotes.
Theology can speak of being as rhetoric and see in the surface of being a kind of intelligible discourse – not one concerning the scale of bare substances, but a doxological discourse, an open declaration of God’s glory, by which the God who differentiates speaks his beauty in the groundless play of form and action, the free movement of diversity, artistry, and unnecessary grace. The occurrence of difference as difference, as the reverberation of the variation in the very event of difference expresses – not dialectically, but aesthetically – the superabounding joy, delight, regard, and response that is God’s life.
[On our journey called life, we are continually] discovering and entering into greater dimensions of His beauty. This is so because God is always beyond, and still above the beyond, but also because God abides in absolute intimacy with creation as the infinite of surpassing fullness, whose beauty embraces and exceeds all that is.
In that first quote, Hart is basically saying that we can understand God as a form of divine dialogue. In Himself is drama. There is assertion and sacrifice, give and take, love and surrender. This dialogue defines the nature of the Triune relationship (if I may be so bold to say ‘define’). The three persons glorify one another, love one another, and are satisfied completely in one another. Their dialogue comes to us as distinct difference. The Father speaks to us (loves us) differently than the Son speaks to us (loves us). The Spirit relates to us (loves us) differently than the Father and the Son. And yet, in their difference, the mutually indwell one another (perichoresis) and are one. This essential difference that lies at the heart of their unity, gives creation the abundant difference it enjoys. God imparts His attributes to creation. Hence male and female. Hence sun and moon. Hence lions, tigers, and bears.
This difference is the foundation for beauty and our appreciation of that beauty. Beauty comes in the interplay of difference, and again, reflects the interplay of the Godhead. It can either reflect well (say in a Bach Cantata) or not so well (pick a Picasso, any Picasso). There is a reason Picasso’s later works are just plain ugly. He (intentionally) distorts the natural interplay of difference within creation. Take the face. The difference that lies in the human face between the eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, and so on, gives the face a beauty. Some faces are more beautiful than others, because the interplay of the differences are such that they are more pleasing. This distortion of Picasso’s is a direct attack against the God of creation, and the beauty that He built in. It is interesting to think that the degrees of beauty are also built in. They are not just a result of the fall. For example take a male lion in full maturity. There is a cross-cultural agreement that that image inspires awe, and is, frankly, beautiful. Compare that to a hyena. Just as much God’s creation as the lion. Cries in affirmation of God’s glory just as much, but the difference is very noticeable. This difference is built in to creation, and gives testimony to the ‘groundless play of form and action, the free movement of diversity and artistry’ in which we witness our God bestow on His creatures, an aspect of Himself. This leads to that third clause of the quote, the unnecessary grace. This unnecessary grace is what calls us to a ‘divine playfulness.’ If we were made in the image of God, and are recreated in the image of Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, made partakers in the very life of the divine, then how can we not join in “the superabounding joy, delight, regard, and response that is God’s life.” This response to God’s life is defined by the love the Father shows the Son shows the Spirit shows the Father and the Son. It is again, the selfless love, a love that is eternally bestowing to another.
Bringing us to the second quote. As our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies are enlightened more and more by the Spirit, we will see clearer and clearer the Divine Abundance that covers everything, enfolds everything, encompasses everything, upholds everything, breathing everything into life. The God of true diversity, a unified diversity, this God who is eternally beyond everything, purposefully stoops into human history. The completely Transcendent One has become flesh and blood in Jesus, thus introducing intimacy with His creation. Through this intimacy with the Holy God of all, we, His beloved, join in His beauty, which pervades all of life.
Makes getting mad at the guy who cut you off on the freeway this morning, look kind of petty.
Theology can speak of being as rhetoric and see in the surface of being a kind of intelligible discourse – not one concerning the scale of bare substances, but a doxological discourse, an open declaration of God’s glory, by which the God who differentiates speaks his beauty in the groundless play of form and action, the free movement of diversity, artistry, and unnecessary grace. The occurrence of difference as difference, as the reverberation of the variation in the very event of difference expresses – not dialectically, but aesthetically – the superabounding joy, delight, regard, and response that is God’s life.
[On our journey called life, we are continually] discovering and entering into greater dimensions of His beauty. This is so because God is always beyond, and still above the beyond, but also because God abides in absolute intimacy with creation as the infinite of surpassing fullness, whose beauty embraces and exceeds all that is.
In that first quote, Hart is basically saying that we can understand God as a form of divine dialogue. In Himself is drama. There is assertion and sacrifice, give and take, love and surrender. This dialogue defines the nature of the Triune relationship (if I may be so bold to say ‘define’). The three persons glorify one another, love one another, and are satisfied completely in one another. Their dialogue comes to us as distinct difference. The Father speaks to us (loves us) differently than the Son speaks to us (loves us). The Spirit relates to us (loves us) differently than the Father and the Son. And yet, in their difference, the mutually indwell one another (perichoresis) and are one. This essential difference that lies at the heart of their unity, gives creation the abundant difference it enjoys. God imparts His attributes to creation. Hence male and female. Hence sun and moon. Hence lions, tigers, and bears.
This difference is the foundation for beauty and our appreciation of that beauty. Beauty comes in the interplay of difference, and again, reflects the interplay of the Godhead. It can either reflect well (say in a Bach Cantata) or not so well (pick a Picasso, any Picasso). There is a reason Picasso’s later works are just plain ugly. He (intentionally) distorts the natural interplay of difference within creation. Take the face. The difference that lies in the human face between the eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, and so on, gives the face a beauty. Some faces are more beautiful than others, because the interplay of the differences are such that they are more pleasing. This distortion of Picasso’s is a direct attack against the God of creation, and the beauty that He built in. It is interesting to think that the degrees of beauty are also built in. They are not just a result of the fall. For example take a male lion in full maturity. There is a cross-cultural agreement that that image inspires awe, and is, frankly, beautiful. Compare that to a hyena. Just as much God’s creation as the lion. Cries in affirmation of God’s glory just as much, but the difference is very noticeable. This difference is built in to creation, and gives testimony to the ‘groundless play of form and action, the free movement of diversity and artistry’ in which we witness our God bestow on His creatures, an aspect of Himself. This leads to that third clause of the quote, the unnecessary grace. This unnecessary grace is what calls us to a ‘divine playfulness.’ If we were made in the image of God, and are recreated in the image of Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, made partakers in the very life of the divine, then how can we not join in “the superabounding joy, delight, regard, and response that is God’s life.” This response to God’s life is defined by the love the Father shows the Son shows the Spirit shows the Father and the Son. It is again, the selfless love, a love that is eternally bestowing to another.
Bringing us to the second quote. As our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies are enlightened more and more by the Spirit, we will see clearer and clearer the Divine Abundance that covers everything, enfolds everything, encompasses everything, upholds everything, breathing everything into life. The God of true diversity, a unified diversity, this God who is eternally beyond everything, purposefully stoops into human history. The completely Transcendent One has become flesh and blood in Jesus, thus introducing intimacy with His creation. Through this intimacy with the Holy God of all, we, His beloved, join in His beauty, which pervades all of life.
Makes getting mad at the guy who cut you off on the freeway this morning, look kind of petty.
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