Beauty Will Save the World

These are some of my latest “favorites” that I have found on flickr.  One of the reasons I engage and appreciate photography is to appreciate the beauty all around me. Too often as Christians we start with truth, move to ethics, then look at beauty.  Hans Urs von Balthasar, a catholic theologian suggest that we start with art (beauty), then move to ethics (goodness) and then to theology (truth).  He makes this case because God first acts in creation, then in history (exodus), and finally in Christ, the living word.  Consider some of these quotes about beauty.

“Beauty will save the world” – Fydor Dostoevsky

“To a skeptical world we are generally more accustomed to defend Christianity in terms of its truth and goodness.  But beauty also belongs to the Christian faith.  And beauty has a way of sneaking past defenses and speaking in unique ways.” – Brian Zahnd

“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.” – Psalm 50:2, ESV

“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough.  We want something else which can hardly be put into words -to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”  – C.S. Lewis