Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, described “beauty” thusly:
Beauty includes three conditions: integrity or perfection, since those things which are impaired are by the very fact ugly; due proportion or harmony; and, lastly, brightness, or clarity, whence things are called beautiful which have an elegant colour.
(Vol. I, Question 39, Article 8)
Put another way, Aquinas viewed beauty as being that which is free from blemish, that which is rightly proportioned, and that which is clearly presented in all its aspects. Or, in a distilled alliterated way (‘cuz I’m a Baptist preacher): Perfection, Proportion, Perspicuity.
Now, I’d be the first person to say, “Hey, we can’t define beauty this way just because Aquinas did.” And I’m also not the biggest Aquinas fan. But, in this instance, he’s on to something. His description of beauty sits in a section in the Summa dealing not with Anthropology or Creation or Glorification, but rather in the context of this topic: “Of the Persons in Relation to the Essence.” And in case that topic doesn’t ring a bell to you, it’s the issue of how each member of the Trinity is indeed truly God.
So, of all the places wherein he could elaborate on the idea of beauty, Aquinas chose to do so when he wrote about the shared nature (essence) of God amongst the persons of the Trinity. To Thomas, we best learn about beauty when we are considering what makes God God. Perhaps, therefore, we should be as careful in thinking about beauty as we should be in thinking about the essence of God in the persons of the Trinity. One bad step and we’re heretics.
An Icon of Beauty
This brings me to the “example” that Aquinas was developing in this context. Since he was attempting to express the fact that all members of the Trinity share the identical essence of God (i.e. all Three are God in the exact same way), he brought attention to the member of the Trinity who has been physically revealed to us — the Son.
You see, if ever there was someone who was in any way beautiful, it would have been Jesus. Mankind is the most glorious of all of God’s handiwork in Creation, and Jesus is the truest and purest man. If we are awestruck by the beauty of a sunrise, or a double rainbow, or of the latest James Webb telescope images, then we should be most profoundly impacted to the highest extent when we consider the beauty of the Son of God.
Yes, Isaiah predicted that “he had no form or majesty that we should desire him.” But this was in reference to the external, suffering, weary, tortured form of Christ. Even while he was outwardly mauled and mangled, he was still the most beautiful physical being in all the Universe. This is because beauty is never merely formal, but is also always substantial. Both form and substance matter for something to be beautiful. This is patently clear from Paul’s description of what makes a woman beautiful:
Women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
1 Timothy 2:9-11
And the one person who had the purest and truest inward substantial beauty is, of course, Jesus. So we learn about what beauty is by considering how Jesus is beautiful. It’s clearly not a mere external thing, and it’s something that can involve action and flows from the inside out.
Hebrews 1 and the Beauty of the Son
Back to Aquinas. He followed his description of beauty with an immediate demonstration of its truth the person of the Son. And he did so by indicating how the Son tangibly reflects the glory of God in each of the three parts of this description of true beauty — the Son is a true representation of God to us, the Son is a complete representation of God to us, and the Son is a clear representation of God to us.
And in reading through Thomas’ articulation of how the Son is all of these things as a quintessential depiction of beauty, I couldn’t help but see that each of these elements find their root in the opening verses to the book of Hebrews. This is a very important thing indeed, for it means that the given description of beauty isn’t to be held as valid just because a well-known Medieval theologian said so, but rather is to be considered valid because it is clearly derived from the plain reading of the Word of God.
Here is the text in mind:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Hebrews 1:1-4
To begin with, we must see that the Son has been given to us in order that we might know God; he is the highest revelation of God to humans. This is important in our understanding of beauty, because there is nothing beautiful that doesn’t import something about the truth of God to us. From an amoeba to a Van Gogh painting to a bride, they all are beautiful insofar as they capture something true about God.
But what do these and other things capture and express about God that makes them beautiful? This is where Aquinas’ observations are helpful.
1. Perfection — “He as Son has in Himself truly and perfectly the nature of the Father.”
What Aquinas meant is exactly what the author in Hebrews revealed — that the Son is perfectly God. That’s what it means that Jesus is the “Son” of God. The Son-ness of Christ doesn’t indicate that he became as son at some point in time like human sons do, but rather that he is of the same “stuff” as his Father is, just as humans sons are. In the same way that human sons share in the natures of their human fathers, so the Son of God is of the same nature of the Heavenly Father. Jesus is essentially God. As Nicaea puts it, Jesus is “very God of very God.”
And this means that Jesus is the most beautiful because he is perfectly God for us to behold. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
2. Proportion — “The second agrees with the Son's property, inasmuch as He is the express Image of the Father.”
The important phrase from Hebrews 1 in view here is this: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” Kittel’s lexicon explains the word for “imprint” as to imply that the “Son as God’s image and impress both contains God’s glory and discloses it.” In other words, the Son is not only essentially God but also properly reveals God. He is God in right proportion. He is divine beauty, as he truly represents God in human form.
An analogy:
If I dip a cup in the Pacific Ocean and come home saying that I brought the Pacific Ocean home with me, I’ve not lied. What I have in the cup is of the same essence as what is contained in the actual Pacific Ocean. But it’s obviously not a truly proportioned sample of the Pacific Ocean, and so its beauty is quite minimal.
Jesus is not only the true essence of God in human form, he is the fullness of God’s essence in human form. He’s like putting the entire Pacific Ocean, along with its towering waves, fathomless depths and billowing clouds into a cup. So, according to Aquinas’ observations, he is true beauty because he is the rightly proportioned and complete revelation of God.
3. Perspicuity — “The third agrees with the property of the Son as the Word.”
The term “perspicuity” may be new to some. It’s a good word, though. I means, “clear.”
The Son is true human beauty because he is the clearest expression of God that humans could possibly comprehend. This idea itself is clear from what the text in Hebrews states — “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” God had, in the past, revealed himself through various means (creation, theophanies, prophets, visions, angels, etc.), but has now finally revealed himself through the Son. The former revelations were clear to some extent, but such clarity is dwarfed by that which comes from God in human flesh.
To summarize, we must see that the Scriptures argue for a definition of beauty in the very person of the Son of God. Beauty is a true picture of God, a complete picture of God, and a clear picture of God.
What Has This To Do With School?
Lots.
So, tune in next time.