“And who is so barbarous as not to understand that the foot of a man is nobler than his shoe, and his skin nobler than that of the sheep with which he is clothed.” - Michelangelo This is one of the most misunderstood topics today because healthy sexuality has been subverted by pornographers and secularists. We struggle to define what the truth is about sexuality and nudity. Our secular masters make us believe it's subjective. It's all taste. No absolute truth. Puritans believe sexuality is inherently evil. The naked body is bad. They're also wrong.
In Orthodoxy the aspect of communion is very important, and that also extends to art. Roger Scruton makes a good remark in his introduction to beauty, in which he explains how one difference between art and mere entertainment is that art maintains a certain "distance" to the observer, allowing him to contemplate about it.
This seeming paradox of beauty being supposed to draw one in, while at the same time also being supposed to keep a distance to the observer is resolved in the communal worldview of Christianity, for distinction does not always imply division. Communing with beauty (or really anything), real participation in it, is exactly about this: allowing for distinction without division. Otherwise one would have to collapse into the other or be separated from it.
For me, communion is the ultimate pinnacle of the true, the good and the beautiful, for even in God exists an eternal communion between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is also how God can be love. I also see it with the naked human body. Extremely beautiful, the problem lies if we "collapse" into it, loose ourselves in it (and vice versa). Beauty is relational, both objective and subjective at the same time and in perfect harmony.
Anyway, thanks for the read. Christ is risen, God bless! :)
Great article!
In Orthodoxy the aspect of communion is very important, and that also extends to art. Roger Scruton makes a good remark in his introduction to beauty, in which he explains how one difference between art and mere entertainment is that art maintains a certain "distance" to the observer, allowing him to contemplate about it.
This seeming paradox of beauty being supposed to draw one in, while at the same time also being supposed to keep a distance to the observer is resolved in the communal worldview of Christianity, for distinction does not always imply division. Communing with beauty (or really anything), real participation in it, is exactly about this: allowing for distinction without division. Otherwise one would have to collapse into the other or be separated from it.
For me, communion is the ultimate pinnacle of the true, the good and the beautiful, for even in God exists an eternal communion between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is also how God can be love. I also see it with the naked human body. Extremely beautiful, the problem lies if we "collapse" into it, loose ourselves in it (and vice versa). Beauty is relational, both objective and subjective at the same time and in perfect harmony.
Anyway, thanks for the read. Christ is risen, God bless! :)