08.20.09

ascetic and aesthetic

Posted in formation at 2:52 pm by len

What I like about the combination of ascetic and aesthetic is that in my mind the strength of the Celtic monastic movement was that it combined these things. It was not truly ascetic because it had a robust love of creation. And it wasn’t merely aesthetic because it recognized that God was imminent but also radically transcendent. Celtic spirituality, at least in its Christian centuries, was NOT a romantic movement.

We need to embrace that tension again if we are going to find a holistic and biblical spirituality that is both Trinitarian and transforming. It’s the dynamic fruition of Word and Spirit, a walk in the radical middle, incarnational living that is reflective and rooted in rhythms and relationship..

On the one hand, like the slogan says, “We must give up what this world has to offer.” On the other hand, “we must embrace God’s gifts and learn to celebrate and dance!”

We need both the “yes” and the “no,” the apophatic and the cataphatic, the via negativa and the via positiva. Maybe we just need to get comfortable with paradox.

In November, 2006 David Fitch wrote,

“I believe “incarnational” must involve the manifestation of His beauty out of our organic life in worship and life together. By this I do not refer to the beauty that is achieved through “production excellence” as is so often sought after in the mega church. So often this results in “the production” of a simulacrum beauty detached from our every day incarnational life. Rather, in the way we worship and in the way we live, art is birthed on the canvas, with the camera, in the children’s class, on the graphics arts screen that points us to the reality of God revealed in all his beauty around us and in everyday life. In this way, music, dance, and the arts are part of what it means to be present as a witness to the beauty of the Lord. Hopefully this art will adorn our homes, our places of conversation, and in our worship gatherings. Otherwise we fall into the dichotomies of beauty versus the sublime, the truth as rational yet not visible. And worse, truth becomes Gnostic, not embodied for all to see.”

1 Comment

  1. Stan Biggs said,

    August 20, 2009 at 8:51 pm

    “Getting comfortable with paradox…….” I know you’ve read Parker Palmer’s first book,
    ….”The Promise of Paradox” and remind you and others of the recently written intro to the
    reprint. (Palmer was amazed to discover that he barely had to change a word 30 years
    after writing.) Embracing the yes and the no, accepting tension, as did Mary when she embraced
    what she couldn’t understand and pondered…..Earlier today speaking with a new friend in the Belfry, the thought resurfaced, “unity of the Spirit isn’t based on doctrinal consensus….” I suspect were we to fearlessly embrace tension and that with grace, walking on waters of the unresolved, treasures would come our way that could never be born of certitude. What if there is deep hurt in the heart of Abba by virtue of our collective failure in this regard? A.N. Whitehead frequently comes to mind when he says that “a rigid insistence on hard-headed clarity borders on sheer superstition, because truth travels on gossamer’s wings”……or something to that effect. I think our son with Down Syndrome sees far more clearly than his Dad some days. That extra chromosome seems to short-circuit doubt, deceit and the deciphering of difficult dimensions on demand. Think I’ll get a transplant. Good night.