What is Beauty?
Week 12 | The Illuminative Way
Building on the Western philosophical tradition, the great medieval thinker Thomas Aquinas wrote that for something to be beautiful it must share three characteristics: integritas (integrity), consonantia (harmony), and claritas (clarity). Integritas is a consistency or unity between something’s interior and exterior; there is a wholeness or completeness.1 Consonantia is a proper proportion between parts; it’s something that’s ordered well within; there is a togetherness. And claritas is a kind of brightness or splendor or glory; it’s a piercing clarity not only to see, but to see through.
Aquinas insisted that when we experience the beautiful, we’re participating, to some degree, in these three realities.
Therefore he defined beauty as “that which gives pleasure when seen.”2 Pope John Paul II said that beauty is “the good made visible.”3 And American philosopher Dallas Willard wrote that beauty is “God’s goodness made manifest to the senses.”4 What all of these definitions seem to suggest is that beauty is intimately tied to our nature, to being fully human.
God has wed the beautiful to our humanness: our senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.
Beauty is his goodness made visible, audible, tactile, delectable, and fragrant.
Room to Reflect
Where in your life are you seeing God’s goodness made manifest to your senses?
Are there specific types of beauty—visual, musical, tactile—that stir your spirit more than others?
How might you practice noticing beauty more intentionally this week?
Eco, Umberto. The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas. (United Kingdom: Radius, 1988), 64-121.
Sevier, Christopher Scott. Aquinas on Beauty. (United States: Lexington Books), 2015, 44.
John Paul II, Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Artists, encyclical letter, Vatican website, April 4, 1999, www.vatican.va/content/johnpaulii/en/letters/1999/documents/hf\_jp-ii\_let\_23041999\_artists.html sec. 3.
Beauty is goodness made manifest to the senses: Dallas Willard, chapel talk, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA, September 12, 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzzzH9z0SRE.