Divine and Created Beauty
摘要
This chapter distinguishes between created and divine beauty. Divine beauty belongs to the nature of God and transcends the societal, aesthetic, and evolutionary binomial beauty-ugliness. Unlike created beauty, which often centres on symmetry and harmony, divine beauty is revealed as light—a radiance that reflects God’s uncreated energies surrounding every human being. To explore the relationship between divine beauty and earthly beauty, I will focus on the crucifixion, the locus where this tension reaches its climax. On the one hand, the crucifixion represents the ultimate place where the radiance of God’s love for humanity is manifested and on the other it defies human aesthetic standards entirely.