“Love of beauty is taste.  The creation of beauty is art.” —Emerson

“One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.” —Psalm 27:4

My oldest daughter lives in the Shire.  Kandern, in the Germany Black Forest, and the surrounding villages, are populated by people tending small farms, artists, and retirees.  Today we hiked up to a small castle ruins, and last night took a walking tour through the village.  The combination of being away from my day to day leadership responsibilities coupled with my newness to this part of the world combine to heighten my senses.  The landscape and the architecture captivate me.  Throw in a symphony of birds as music score, and we’re walking through a sensual feast.

“Sensuality” is a word that’s looked at with suspicion among Christians because it’s used negatively each of the four times it appears in the Bible.  We’re afraid of being seduced by our feelings, and as a result we become afraid of our actual feelings. Our fear of “the abuse of the thing” leads to a “fear of the thing,” which can, I’m afraid, lead to a “loss of the thing.” It would be like being afraid of becoming an alcoholic, and responding to that fear by burning vineyards to the ground. This way of thinking, this suspicion towards things that bring joy to our senses, becomes a sort of functional gnosticism, where we relegate pleasure of any kind (other than that derived from praying and reading the Bible) to a bin entitled “of this earth.” This division occurs in different ways with different people, and to varying degrees. Wherever it appears though, the affect is the same:  our capacity to both enjoy and create beauty is muted. Food becomes fuel. Sex becomes procreation, or worse, obligation. Architecture becomes shelter. Art becomes propaganda.  The world becomes gray.

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