{"id":2721,"date":"2015-04-24T07:30:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T11:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/?p=2721"},"modified":"2015-04-24T11:21:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T15:21:23","slug":"wagner-he-is-so-wrong-and-so-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2015\/04\/wagner-he-is-so-wrong-and-so-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Wagner: He is so wrong and so beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I think beauty is important and that too often Americans, particularly American Christians, do not value beauty enough. We sometimes act as if beauty were an extra that humanity could do without. Truth? We know we need truth. Goodness? We cannot have Heaven without goodness (even if the goodness is God\u2019s). We forget that Heaven will be beautiful and nothing ugly can go into that City of God.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/a>
No rabbits died taking this picture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are truths that are expressed poorly. There are moral messages that are sung tunelessly. The truth is still true and the message is still moral, but it is too bad that they are in an ugly package. Truth, goodness, and beauty should go together.<\/p>\n

Last night reminded me that beauty is worthwhile, but it too needs goodness and truth. Just as truth without beauty is lamed, so beauty combined with falsity is deeply marred.<\/p>\n

Last night I went to a performance of\u00a0Ride of the Valkyries\u00a0<\/em>here in the city of the twenty-first century: Houston. (My genius opera BFF\u2019s say Die Walk\u00fcre.) Sadly, beauty was missing from the parts of the evening the company controlled. The<\/span>\u00a0staging was bland and the costumes frightful. If an opera could be marred by staging, the Houston company tried their best to mar Wagner\u2019s second opera in the Ring Cycle.<\/p>\n

But the music was heaven, the singing sublime, and we were there (mostly) for the music. \u00a0Wagner owned my emotions through the romanticism of his powerful sounds despite my caution about his vile beliefs. Anyone who grew up (as I did) with Shirer\u2019s\u00a0Rise and Fall of the Third Reich<\/em> as a book read and reread knows to be cautious about Wagnerian influences.<\/p>\n

Still, CS Lewis loved Wagner growing up and so I listened, ignored my prejudices, and asked the BFF\u2019s to help me \u201cget it.\u201d They tried and I did grasp a bit the beauty. There was so much that any I could grab at left vast swathes of untouched beauty. I know it..<\/p>\n

And yet so much falsity and ugliness. The god complaining that obedience produced no freedom but mere copies. The brother and sister whose romantic love I was to celebrate. The musical and verbal self-indulgance of parts that seemed to be more about Wagner being god than the music.<\/p>\n

Such beauty mixed with such ugliness was infuriating like Wagner had intentionally thrown up on one plate at a great and generous feast he prepared. What was to be done?<\/p>\n

In the end, I took the beauty and was thankful for it. I let the rest go, knowing some I was falsely judging out of ignorance and the rest could be abandoned. I could love the beauty of the music, that stirring music, and let the selfishness go. Nobody was making me believe in Wagner if I believed in the image of God that came pouring out of Wagner.<\/p>\n

I left loving the music and pitying the man. And greatly appreciating Bugs Bunny who first taught me (\u201cKilled a Wabbit!\u201d) to love the most famous tune. \u00a0Gently the reminder came: all we do is flawed. All we give each other and God is His own marred by our clumsy efforts. He chooses to take the good and redeem the bad because He is a good Dad. Because He wants us to grow up, God doesn\u2019t pretend our bad is good. He shows us our faults if we will listen. He corrects even our artistic expression if we will hear.<\/p>\n

Wagner would not listen and so Wagner was not persuaded. Yet, Wagner was a soul created in the image of God and what Wagner meant for Wagner\u2019s glory was simply glorious. We can be thankful and unafraid to appropriate any art even Hitler\u2019s favorite composer. Why give anything good to that bad man?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think beauty is important and that too often Americans, particularly American Christians, do not value beauty enough. We sometimes act as if beauty were an extra that humanity could do without. Truth? We know we need truth. Goodness? We cannot have Heaven without goodness (even if the goodness is God\u2019s). We forget that Heaven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1007,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-reflections"],"yoast_head":"\nWagner: He is so wrong and so beautiful<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I think beauty is important and that too often Americans, particularly American Christians, do not value beauty enough. 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