{"id":529,"date":"2018-02-03T07:59:46","date_gmt":"2018-02-03T07:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divergence.blog\/?p=529"},"modified":"2018-02-03T07:59:46","modified_gmt":"2018-02-03T07:59:46","slug":"the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/03\/the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"The True, the Good, and the Beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Philosopher\/theologian and organic farmer Michael Martin<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Gnostic myth, Sophia suffers in captivity (in matter, the world) awaiting her release and redemption by the soul awakened in Christ. Our own agapeic attention to creation, to the arts, to liturgy, scripture, and so forth likewise awakens Sophia and simultaneously makes present the Parousia (certainly this is a theme of Blake\u2019s masterpiece Jerusalem). Otherwise, she remains in captivity. The attention of the artist is the paradigmatic site of this kind of awakening, which is why even works not ostensibly religious can disclose truth and beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe there is a lot of truth to the above.\u00a0 When we think about the Wisdom of God and the personification of that Wisdom, we are led to Sophia.\u00a0 The notion of, the nature of, the explanation for, Sophia\u2014is somewhat labyrinth.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t a post about Sophia specifically, however.<\/p>\n

The reason I bring it up is because I believe Sophia is related to the arts, and thus the true, the good, and the beautiful, wherever those aspects can be found and in whatever creative expression they might be located.<\/p>\n

To go just a little further though as to Sophia, there has been the theological\/philosophical problem of how we maneuver when it comes to God\u2019s relation to creation.\u00a0 We are often caught between a pantheism and an absolute immanentism, the Scylla and Charybdis if you will, as to the specifics of that relation.\u00a0 Is there some boundary, some location, space, (person?), idea, sense, that exists allowing neither to become absolute?<\/p>\n

In the forward to Sergei Bulgakov\u2019s \u201cSOPHIA The Wisdom of God<\/a>,\u201d Christopher Bamford<\/a> addresses that question:<\/p>\n

\u201cAn intermediary is needed, a boundary\u2026between the Creator and creation\u2026 [the boundary] between God and the world, is Sophia.\u00a0 Sophia is the divine \u201cIdea,\u201d the object of God\u2019s love: \u2018the love of love\u2019 (Lossky).\u00a0 \u2018Sophia is loved and loves in return, and through this reciprocal love she receives all, is all.\u2019 By giving herself wholly up to God, she receives all from God.\u00a0 Receiving her essence from the Father, she is the creature and daughter of God; knowing and known by the Word, she is the bride of the Son and the spouse of the Lamb; receiving the gifts of the Spirit, she is the Church and, at the same time, Mary; and she is the ideal soul of creation\u2014the world soul, natura naturans<\/em>\u2014Beauty.\u00a0 As Dostoevsky wrote: \u2018Beauty will save the world.\u2019 In Bulgakov, the Sophianic beauty manifests through the life-giving power of the Spirit, who is never apart from the World or meaning.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Sophia is twofold, at once Divine and creaturely\u2014above and before creation and \u2018in\u2019 creation.\u00a0 The world is created in Sophia and Sophia, at the same time, is in the world, throughout it, in the form of divine energies and spiritual beings, as its boundary.\u201d<\/p>\n

All this is a preface.\u00a0 All I\u2019m doing is giving you the context for some posts I will introduce every now and then.\u00a0 Along with the posts that will address my journey out of funda-gelicalism (FG), my explorations of that journey, or my flights of fancy (reflections), I will every now and again post poems, movie reviews, music reviews, or posts directed toward the arts or creative spirits.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because in such Sophia might be released.\u00a0 And whenever that happens, there is the possibility of touching the face of God.<\/p>\n

So, with that backdrop, I present you a poem:<\/p>\n

The Secrets of Ferns<\/strong><\/p>\n

The secrets of ferns wear little white nightgowns.
\nThey float like ghost-moths into the dark.
\nStars with sleeves, full of dreaming.
\nThe ferns subdue their green at night.
\nBut they still have it, this green, hidden.
\nThe scene is black, white, neutral.
\nNight has rubbed a chalky finger over all.
\nMy out-breaths ascend as my lungs empty.
\nEach one carries my soul on its hem,
\nyet the soul is never depleted.
\nLittle bits of it float over every continent.
\nAll the souls of all the sleepers merge.
\nAll the dreams become one enormous dream
\nand the secrets one secret, larger than the earth.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Anya Silver<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philosopher\/theologian and organic farmer Michael Martin writes: \u201cIn the Gnostic myth, Sophia suffers in captivity (in matter, the world) awaiting her release and redemption by the soul awakened in Christ. Our own agapeic attention to creation, to the arts, to liturgy, scripture, and so forth likewise awakens Sophia and simultaneously makes present the Parousia (certainly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,35,269,341,422,425,461],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anya-silver","tag-bulgakov","tag-michael-martin","tag-poetry","tag-sophia","tag-sophiology","tag-the-arts"],"yoast_head":"\nThe True, the Good, and the Beautiful<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Philosopher\/theologian and organic farmer Michael Martin writes: \u201cIn the Gnostic myth, Sophia suffers in captivity (in matter, the world) awaiting her\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/03\/the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The True, the Good, and the Beautiful\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Philosopher\/theologian and organic farmer Michael Martin writes: \u201cIn the Gnostic myth, Sophia suffers in captivity (in matter, the world) awaiting her\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/03\/the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Divergence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-03T07:59:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@darrelllackey1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/03\/the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/03\/the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful\/\",\"name\":\"The True, the Good, and the Beautiful\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-03T07:59:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-03T07:59:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#\/schema\/person\/d88a32b8d4b5f40fbd6ccbfce4e0f813\"},\"description\":\"Philosopher\/theologian and organic farmer Michael Martin writes: \u201cIn the Gnostic myth, Sophia suffers in captivity (in matter, the world) awaiting her\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/03\/the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/03\/the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/03\/the-true-the-good-and-the-beautiful\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The True, the Good, and the Beautiful\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\",\"name\":\"Divergence\",\"description\":\"Commentary Regarding Fundamentalism - 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