Idiot beauty will save the world. Beauty will save the world? Beauty as an evaluation material of the surrounding world

beauty will save the world

beauty will save the world
From the novel The Idiot (1868) by F. M. Dostoevsky (1821 - 1881).
As a rule, it is understood literally: contrary to the author's interpretation of the concept of "beauty".
In the novel (part 3, ch. V), these words are spoken by an 18-year-old youth, Ippolit Terentyev, referring to the words of Prince Myshkin transmitted to him by Nikolai Ivolgin and ironically over the latter: “It’s true, prince, that you once said that the world will be saved by“ beauty "? Gentlemen, - he shouted loudly to everyone, - the prince claims that beauty will save the world! And I say that he has such playful thoughts because he is now in love.
Gentlemen, the prince is in love; just now, as soon as he entered, I was convinced of this. Don't blush, prince, I'll feel sorry for you. What beauty will save the world? Kolya told me this... Are you a zealous Christian? Kolya says that you call yourself a Christian.
The prince examined him attentively and did not answer him.
F. M. Dostoevsky was far from strictly aesthetic judgments - he wrote about spiritual beauty, about the beauty of the soul. This corresponds to the main idea of ​​the novel - to create the image of a "positively beautiful person". Therefore, in his drafts, the author calls Myshkin "Prince Christ", thereby reminding himself that Prince Myshkin should be as similar as possible to Christ - kindness, philanthropy, meekness, a complete lack of selfishness, the ability to sympathize with human misfortunes and misfortunes. Therefore, the “beauty” that the prince (and F. M. Dostoevsky himself) speaks of is the sum of the moral qualities of a “positively beautiful person”.
Such a purely personal interpretation of beauty is characteristic of the writer. He believed that "people can be beautiful and happy" not only in the afterlife. They can be like this and "without losing the ability to live on earth." To do this, they must agree with the idea that Evil “cannot be the normal state of people”, that everyone is able to get rid of it. And then, when people will be guided by the best that is in their soul, memory and intentions (Good), then they will be truly beautiful. And the world will be saved, and it is precisely such “beauty” (that is, the best that is in people) that will save it.
Of course, this will not happen overnight - spiritual work, trials and even suffering are needed, after which a person renounces Evil and turns to Good, begins to appreciate it. The writer speaks of this in many of his works, including in the novel The Idiot. For example (Part 1, Chapter VII):
“For some time, the general, silently and with a certain tinge of disdain, examined the portrait of Nastasya Filippovna, which she held in front of her in her outstretched hand, extremely and effectively moving away from her eyes.
Yes, she's good," she finally said, "very good indeed. I saw her twice, only from a distance. So you appreciate such and such beauty? she suddenly turned to the prince.
Yes ... such ... - answered the prince with some effort.
That is, exactly like this?
Exactly this.
For what?
There is a lot of suffering in this face ... - the prince said, as if involuntarily, as if speaking to himself, and not answering a question.
You, however, may be delusional, ”the general’s wife decided and with an arrogant gesture threw the portrait on the table about herself.”
The writer in his interpretation of beauty acts as a like-minded German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who spoke about the “moral law within us”, that “beauty is a symbol
ox of moral good. F. M. Dostoevsky develops the same idea in his other works. So, if in the novel “The Idiot” he writes that beauty will save the world, then in the novel “Demons” (1872) he logically concludes that “ugliness (malice, indifference, selfishness. - Comp.) will kill ... "

Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M.: "Lokid-Press". Vadim Serov. 2003 .

See what "Beauty will save the world" is in other dictionaries:

- (beautiful), in the concepts of Holy Rus', divine harmony, inherent in nature, man, some things and images. Beauty expresses the divine essence of the world. Its source is in God Himself, His integrity and perfection. "Beauty ... ... Russian history

BEAUTY Russian Philosophy: Dictionary

beauty- one of the central concepts of Russian. philosophical and aesthetic thought. The word K. comes from the Proto-Slavic beauty. The adjective red in Proto-Slavonic and Old Russian. languages ​​meant beautiful, beautiful, bright (hence, for example, Red ... ... Russian Philosophy. Encyclopedia

Artistic the direction prevailing in the app. European culture in room 60 early. 70s 19th century (originally in literature, then in other forms of art depicting, musical, theatrical) and soon included other cultural phenomena philosophy, ... ... Encyclopedia of cultural studies

An aesthetic category that characterizes phenomena that have the highest aesthetic perfection. In the history of thought, the specificity of P. was realized gradually, through its correlation with other kinds of values, utilitarian (benefit), cognitive (truth), ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Fedor Mikhailovich, Russian writer, thinker, publicist. Started in the 40s. lit. way in line with the "natural school" as a successor to Gogol and an admirer of Belinsky, D. at the same time absorbed into ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

- (from the Greek. aisthetikos feeling, sensual) philosophy. a discipline that studies the nature of the whole variety of expressive forms of the surrounding world, their structure and modification. E. is focused on identifying universals in sensory perception ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Vladimir Sergeevich (born January 16, 1853, Moscow - died July 31, 1900, ibid.) - the largest Russian. religious philosopher, poet, publicist, son of S. M. Solovyov, rector of the Moscow University and author of the 29-volume "History of Russia from ancient times" (1851 - 1879) ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

An activity that generates new values, ideas, the person himself as a creator. In modern scientific literature devoted to this problem, there is an obvious desire to explore specific types of technology (in science, technology, art), its ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Valentina Sazonova Sazonova Valentina Grigoryevna Date of birth: March 19, 1955 (1955 03 19) Place of birth: Chervone ... Wikipedia

Books

• Beauty will save the world Grade 4 Album of artistic tasks in fine arts, Ashikova S. 4th grade". It expands and deepens the material of the textbook for grade 4 (author S. G. Ashikova) .. Contents ...
• Beauty will save the world. Album of artistic tasks in the visual arts. 4th grade. GEF, Ashikova Svetlana Gennadievna. The main task of the album of artistic tasks Beauty will save the world, grade 4, to help children see and love the world around them and its colors. The album is unusual in that it contains another…

A speech written for a speaking contest that I never entered...

Each of us is familiar with fairy tales in which, one way or another, good always triumphs over evil; Fairy tales are one thing, and the real world is another, which is far from cloudless and often does not appear before us in the best light. We so often encounter such negative aspects of life as injustice, environmental disasters, wars of various types and scales, devastation, that, it would seem, we have already got used to the idea “this world is doomed”.

Is there a medicine that can save the world, reverse doom?

We have only one height
Among the heights captured by darkness!
If beauty does not save the world -
So no one else can save you!

(excerpt from a poem by an unknown author)

A medicine called "Beauty will save the world" was discovered by F.M. Dostoevsky. And I believe that only by turning to beauty, you can stop the crazy race for power and money, stop violence, become more humane to nature and sincere to each other, overcome ignorance and licentiousness.

So, beauty… What does this word mean to you? Perhaps someone will say that this is health or a well-groomed appearance? For some, beauty is determined by the inner qualities of a person. The modern world is simply filled with propaganda of excessive passion for one's appearance, when the true meaning of the concept of "beauty" today is greatly distorted.

According to the understanding of the ancients, it was believed that the Earth is located on elephants, which in turn stand on a turtle. By analogy with this, elephants can be considered as parts that make up the basis of this world - beauty (turtle).

One of the components of beauty is nature: wild flowers are beautiful in an endless open field, and a sonorous stream, whose transparent drops flow among the rocky Ural mountains, and a snow-covered forest, iridescent sparkling in the rays of the winter sun, and a ginger kitten, waking up amusingly rubbing its small paws eyes looking at the world in wonder.
All this is the natural beauty of nature, careful attitude to which is directly related to the fullness of life. How many emissions into the biosphere are produced by industrial enterprises? How many animals are on the verge of extinction? What about abrupt climate change and natural anomalies? Does it lead to beauty?!

The second, but not least, component of beauty is art - paintings by outstanding artists, architectural monuments, great musical masterpieces. Their beauty is appreciated and confirmed by history, centuries, life. The main criterion for the significance of beautiful and immortal works is the undeniable splendor, picturesqueness, elegance and expressiveness that they possess. They can be understood or not understood, disputes can be conducted about them, multifaceted versatile treatises and assessments can be carried out. It is impossible to be indifferent to them, as they touch the deepest strings of human souls, are valued by people of different nations and generations.

Culture goes hand in hand with art. Peace - the coexistence of different peoples, respecting foreign culture (beauty). It is important to respect other people's traditions and customs, to be ready to favorably recognize and accept the behavior, beliefs and views of other people, even if these beliefs and views are not shared by you. There are many historical examples of lack of respect for other people's customs and mores. This is mass religious fanaticism in medieval Europe, which resulted in crusades that destroyed foreign cultures (whole generations of such fanatics saw paganism and dissent as a threat to their spiritual world and tried to physically exterminate everyone who did not fall under their definition of a believer). Giordano Bruno, Joan of Arc, Jan Hus and many others died at the hands of fanatics. This is Bartholomew's Night - a terrible massacre of the Huguenots (French Protestants), provoked by the ardent Catholic Catherine de Medici in August 1572. More than 70 years ago, a wave of Jewish pogroms, called "Kristallnacht", swept through Nazi Germany, which marked the beginning of one of the most nightmarish crimes against tolerance in human history (the Holocaust)...

A modern cultured person is not only an educated person, but a person who has a sense of self-respect and is respected by others. Tolerance is a sign of high spiritual and intellectual development. We live in a country that is the center of the interweaving of different religions, cultures and traditions, which gives society an example of the possibility of uniting representatives of different peoples...

Our country is a center of interweaving of different religions, cultures and traditions, which gives the society an example of the possibility of uniting representatives of different peoples. A modern cultured person is a person who has a sense of self-respect and is respected by others. Tolerance is a sign of high spiritual and intellectual development.

Everyone is probably familiar with Chekhov's favorite quote: "Everything should be beautiful in a person: face, clothes, soul, and thoughts ...". Agree, it often happens like this: we see an outwardly beautiful person, and looking closely, something in him alarms us - something repulsive and unpleasant.
Can we call beautiful a lazy person who spends whole days aimlessly, uselessly in idleness and “doing nothing”? But indifferent? Can he be truly beautiful? Does his face reflect a thought, are there lights in his eyes, how emotional is his speech Are you attracted to a person with a blank look and an imprint of boredom on his face?
But even the most modest, inconspicuous person who does not have ideal beauty by nature, but endowed with spiritual beauty, is undoubtedly beautiful. A kind, sympathetic heart, useful deeds adorn and illuminate with inner light.

Beauty with its harmony and perfection is fundamental to almost everything that surrounds us. It helps to love and create, it creates beauty, because of it we perform feats, thanks to beauty we become better.

Beauty is the same perpetual motion machine that is impossible at the material level, according to physicists and chemists, but works at higher levels of human life organization.
“Whoever is tired of dirt, petty penny interests, who is indignant, offended and indignant, he can find peace and satisfaction only in beauty.” A.P. Chekhov

The illustration to the text was selected using the Internet resource.

beauty will save the world

"Terrible and mysterious"

"Beauty will save the world" - this enigmatic phrase of Dostoevsky is often quoted. It is much less frequently mentioned that these words belong to one of the heroes of the novel "The Idiot" - Prince Myshkin. The author does not necessarily agree with the views attributed to various characters in his literary works. While in this case Prince Myshkin does appear to be voicing Dostoevsky's own beliefs, other novels, such as The Brothers Karamazov, express a much more wary attitude towards beauty. “Beauty is a terrible and terrible thing,” says Dmitry Karamazov. - Terrible, because it is indefinable, but it is impossible to determine, because God asked only riddles. Here the banks converge, here all the contradictions live together. Dmitry adds that in search of beauty, a person "begins with the ideal of the Madonna, and ends with the ideal of Sodom." And he comes to the following conclusion: “The terrible thing is that beauty is not only a terrible, but also a mysterious thing. Here the devil is fighting with God, and the battlefield is the hearts of people.”

It is possible that both are right - both Prince Myshkin and Dmitry Karamazov. In a fallen world, beauty has a dangerous, dual character: it is not only saving, but can also lead to deep temptation. “Tell me where you come from, Beauty? Is your gaze the azure of heaven or the product of hell? Baudelaire asks. It was the beauty of the fruit offered to her by the serpent that seduced Eve: she saw that it was pleasing to the eye (cf. Gen. 3:6).

for from the greatness of the beauty of creatures

(...) the Creator of their being is known.

However, he continues, this does not always happen. Beauty can also lead us astray, so that we are content with the "apparent perfections" of temporal things and no longer seek their Creator (Wis 13:1-7). The very fascination with beauty can be a trap that depicts the world as something incomprehensible, not clear, turning beauty from a sacrament into an idol. Beauty ceases to be a source of purification when it becomes an end in itself instead of directing upward.

Lord Byron was not entirely wrong in speaking of the "pernicious gift of marvelous beauty." However, he was not completely right. Without for a moment forgetting the dual nature of beauty, we'd better focus on its life-giving power than on its temptations. It is more interesting to look at the light than at the shadow. At first glance, the statement that “beauty will save the world” may indeed seem sentimental and far from life. Does it even make sense to talk about salvation through beauty in the face of the myriad tragedies we face: disease, famine, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, child abuse? However, Dostoevsky's words may offer us a very important clue, indicating that the suffering and sorrow of a fallen creature can be redeemed and transfigured. In the hope of this, consider two levels of beauty: the first is the divine uncreated beauty, and the second is the created beauty of nature and people.

God is beauty

“God is good; He is Goodness Himself. God is truthful; He is Truth Himself. God is glorified, and His glory is Beauty itself." These words of Archpriest Sergius Bulgakov (1871–1944), perhaps the greatest Orthodox thinker of the twentieth century, provide us with a suitable starting point. He worked on the famous triad of Greek philosophy: goodness, truth and beauty. These three qualities achieve perfect coincidence with God, forming a single and inseparable reality, but at the same time, each of them expresses a specific side of divine being. What, then, does divine beauty mean, apart from His goodness and His truth?

The answer comes from the Greek word kalos, which means "beautiful." This word can also be translated as "good", but in the triad mentioned above, another word is used for "good" - agathos. Then, perceiving kalos in the meaning "beautiful", we can, following Plato, note that etymologically it is connected with the verb Kaleo, meaning "I call" or "call", "I pray" or "call". In this case, there is a special quality of beauty: it calls, attracts and attracts us. It takes us beyond ourselves and leads us into relationship with the Other. She awakens in us eros, a feeling of longing and yearning that C. S. Lewis calls "joy" in his autobiography. In each of us lives a longing for beauty, a thirst for something hidden deep in our subconscious, something that was known to us in the distant past, but now for some reason it is not subject to us.

Thus, beauty as an object or subject of our eros'a directly attracts and disturbs us with its magnetism and charm, so that it does not need the frame of virtue and truth. In a word, divine beauty expresses the attractive power of God. It immediately becomes apparent that there is an inherent connection between beauty and love. When St. Augustine (354-430) began to write his "Confession", he was tormented most of all by the fact that he did not love divine beauty: "Too late I loved Thee, O Divine Beauty, so ancient and so young!"

This beauty of the Kingdom of God is keynote Psalms. David's only desire is to contemplate the beauty of God:

I asked the Lord for one

I'm just looking for

so that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

behold the beauty of the Lord (Ps 27/26:4).

Addressing the messianic king, David states: “You are more beautiful than the sons of men” (Ps 45/44:3).

If God himself is handsome, then so is his sanctuary, his temple: "... power and splendor in his sanctuary" (Ps 96 / 95: 6). Thus, beauty is associated with worship: “…worship the Lord in His glorious sanctuary” (Ps 29/28:2).

God reveals himself in beauty: "From Zion, which is the height of beauty, God appears" (Ps 50/49:2).

If beauty thus has a theophanic nature, then Christ, the highest self-manifestation of God, is known not only as good (Mark 10:18) and truth (John 14:6), but equally as beauty. At the transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor, where the divine beauty of the God-man was revealed to the highest degree, St. Peter pointedly says: “Good ( Kalon we should be here” (Mt 17:4). Here we must remember the double meaning of the adjective kalos. Peter not only affirms the essential goodness of the heavenly vision, but also proclaims that it is a place of beauty. Thus the words of Jesus: "I am the good shepherd ( kalos)” (John 10:11) can be interpreted with the same, if not more accuracy, as follows: “I am a beautiful shepherd ( ho poemen ho kalos)". Archimandrite Leo Gillet (1893-1980) adhered to this version, whose reflections on the Holy Scriptures, often published under the pseudonym "monk of the Eastern Church", are so highly valued by members of our brotherhood.

The dual heritage of Holy Scripture and Platonism made it possible for the Greek Church Fathers to speak of divine beauty as an all-encompassing point of attraction. For St. Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 500 A.D.), the beauty of God is both the cause and at the same time the goal of all created beings. He writes: “From this beauty comes everything that exists… Beauty unites all things and is the source of all things. It is the great creative first cause which awakens the world and preserves the being of all things through their inherent thirst for beauty. According to Thomas Aquinas (circa 1225–1274), " omnia…ex divina pulchritudine procedunt"-" all things arise from Divine Beauty."

Being, according to Dionysius, the source of being and the “creative root cause”, beauty is at the same time the goal and “ultimate limit” of all things, their “ultimate cause”. The starting point is also the end point. Thirst ( eros) of uncreated beauty unites all created beings and unites them in one strong and harmonious whole. Looking at the connection between kalos And Kaleo, Dionysius writes: “Beauty “calls” all things to itself (for this reason it is called “beauty”), and collects everything in itself.”

Divine beauty is thus the primary source and realization of both the formative principle and the unifying goal. Although the Holy Apostle Paul does not use the word “beauty” in Colossians, what he says about the cosmic meaning of Christ corresponds exactly to divine beauty: 1:16-17).

Look for Christ everywhere

If such is the all-encompassing scale of divine beauty, then what can be said about the beauty of creation? It exists mainly on three levels: things, people and sacred rites, in other words, it is the beauty of nature, the beauty of angels and saints, as well as the beauty of liturgical worship.

The beauty of nature is especially emphasized at the end of the story of the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis: “And God saw everything that He had created, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). In the Greek version of the Old Testament (Septuagint), the expression "very good" is rendered by the words kala lian, therefore, due to the double meaning of the adjective kalos the words of the Book of Genesis can be translated not only as "very good," but also as "very beautiful." There is no doubt a good reason for using the second interpretation: for modern secular culture, the main means by which most of our Western contemporaries reach from a remote idea of ​​the transcendent is precisely the beauty of nature, as well as poetry, painting and music. For the Russian writer Andrei Sinyavsky (Abram Tertz), far from a sentimental retreat from life, since he spent five years in Soviet camps, "nature - forests, mountains, skies - is infinity, given to us in the most accessible, tangible form."

The spiritual value of natural beauty is manifested in the daily circle of worship of the Orthodox Church. In liturgical time, a new day begins not at midnight or at dawn, but at sunset. This is how time is understood in Judaism, which explains the history of the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis: “And there was evening, and there was morning: one day” (Genesis 1:5) - evening comes before morning. This Hebrew approach was preserved in Christianity. This means that Vespers is not the end of the day, but the entry into a new day that is just beginning. This is the first service in the daily cycle of worship. How then does Vespers begin in the Orthodox Church? It always starts the same way, with the exception of Easter week. We read or sing a psalm that is a hymn in praise of the beauty of creation: “Bless the Lord, my soul! Oh my God! You are wonderfully great, You are clothed with glory and majesty ... How numerous are Your works, Lord! You have done everything in wisdom” (Ps 104/103:1, 24).

Starting a new day, we first of all think that the created world around us is a clear reflection of the uncreated beauty of God. Here is what Father Alexander Schmemann (1921–1983) says about Vespers:

"It starts with start, which means, in the rediscovery, in favor and thanksgiving of the world created by God. The Church seems to lead us to the first evening, on which a person, called by God to life, opened his eyes and saw what God in His love gave him, saw all the beauty, all the splendor of the temple in which he stood, and gave thanks to God. And in giving thanks he became himself… And if the Church - in Christ, then the first thing she does is give thanks, return peace to God.

The value of created beauty is equally confirmed by the trinitarian construction of the Christian life, which was repeatedly spoken of by the spiritual authors of the Christian East, starting with Origen (c. 185-254) and Evagrius of Pontus (346-399). The sacred path distinguishes three stages or levels: practice("active life"), physiki("contemplation of nature") and theology(contemplation of God). The path begins with active ascetic efforts, with the struggle to avoid sinful deeds, to eradicate vicious thoughts or passions and thus achieve spiritual freedom. The path ends with "theology", in this context meaning the vision of God, unity in love with the Holy Trinity. But between these two levels there is an intermediate stage - “natural contemplation”, or “contemplation of nature”.

"Contemplation of nature" has two aspects: negative and positive. The negative side is the knowledge that things in a fallen world are deceitful and transient, and therefore it is necessary to go beyond them and turn to the Creator. However, on the positive side, this means seeing God in all things and all things in God. Let's quote Andrei Sinyavsky once again: “Nature is beautiful because God looks at it. Silently, from afar, He looks at the forests, and that is enough.” That is, natural contemplation is the vision of the natural world as the mystery of the divine presence. Before we can contemplate God as He is, we learn to discover Him in His creations. In the present life, very few people can contemplate God as He is, but each of us, without exception, can discover Him in His creations. God is much more accessible, much closer to us than we usually imagine. Each of us can ascend to God through His creation. According to Alexander Schmemann, "A Christian is one who, wherever he looks, will find Christ everywhere and rejoice with Him." Can't each of us be a Christian in this sense?

One of the places where it is especially easy to practice "contemplation of nature" is the holy Mount Athos, which any pilgrim can confirm. Russian hermit Nikon Karulsky (1875-1963) said: "Here every stone breathes with prayers." It is said that another Athonite hermit, a Greek, whose cell was on the top of a rock facing west towards the sea, sat every evening on a ledge of the rock, watching the sunset. Then he went to his chapel to perform the night vigil. One day a student moved in with him, a young, practically minded monk with an energetic character. The elder told him to sit next to him every evening while he watched the sunset. After a while, the student became impatient. “It's a beautiful view,” he said, “but we saw it yesterday and the day before. What is the meaning of nightly observation? What are you doing while you sit here watching the sun go down?” And the elder answered: “I am collecting fuel.”

What did he mean? Undoubtedly, this is it: the outward beauty of the visible creature helped him prepare for the night prayer, during which he aspired to the inner beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven. Finding the presence of God in nature, he could then easily find God in the depths of his own heart. Watching the sunset, he "gathered fuel", the material that will give him strength in the upcoming secret knowledge of God. Such was the picture of his spiritual path: through creation to the Creator, from "physics" to "theology", from "contemplation of nature" to the contemplation of God.

There is a Greek saying: "If you want to know the truth, ask a fool or a child." Indeed, often holy fools and children are sensitive to the beauty of nature. When it comes to children, the Western reader should remember the examples of Thomas Traherne and William Wordsworth, Edwin Muir and Kathleen Rhine. A remarkable representative of the Christian East is the priest Pavel Florensky (1882-1937), who died as a martyr for his faith in one of Stalin's concentration camps.

“Confessing how much he loved nature in childhood, Father Paul further explains that for him the entire realm of nature is divided into two categories of phenomena: “captivatingly blessed” and “extremely special”. Both categories attracted and delighted him, some with their refined beauty and spirituality, others with their mysterious unusualness. “Grace, striking with splendor, was bright and extremely close. I loved her with all the fullness of tenderness, admired her to the point of convulsions, to the point of keen compassion, asking why I could not completely merge with her and, finally, why I could not absorb her into myself forever or be absorbed in her. This sharp, piercing aspiration of the child's consciousness, of the whole being of the child, to completely merge with a beautiful object should have been preserved by Florensky from then on, acquiring completeness, expressed in the traditionally Orthodox aspiration of the soul to merge with God.

The beauty of the saints

To "contemplate nature" means not only to find God in every created thing, but also, much deeper, to find Him in every person. Due to the fact that people are created in the image and likeness of God, they all participate in divine beauty. And although this applies to every person without exception, despite his external degradation and sinfulness, it is originally and supremely true in relation to the saints. Asceticism, according to Florensky, creates not so much a “kind” as a “beautiful” person.

This brings us to the second of the three levels of created beauty: the beauty of the host of saints. They are beautiful not in sensual or physical beauty, not in beauty judged by secular "aesthetic" criteria, but in abstract, spiritual beauty. This spiritual beauty is first of all manifested in Mary, the Mother of God. According to St. Ephraim the Syrian (c. 306–373), she is the highest expression of created beauty:

“You are one, O Jesus, with Your Mother are beautiful in every way. There is not a single defect in You, my Lord, there is not a single spot on Your Mother.

After the Blessed Virgin Mary, the personification of beauty is the holy angels. In their strict hierarchies, according to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, they appear as "a symbol of Divine Beauty." Here is what is said about the Archangel Michael: "Your face shines, O Michael, the first among the angels, and your beauty is full of miracles."

The beauty of the saints is emphasized by the words from the book of the prophet Isaiah: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the evangelist who proclaims peace” (Is 52:7; Rom 10:15). It is also clearly accentuated in the description of St. Seraphim of Sarov, given by the pilgrim N. Aksakova:

“All of us, poor and rich, were waiting for him, crowding at the entrance to the temple. When he appeared at the door of the church, the eyes of all those present turned to him. He slowly descended the steps, and despite his slight limp and hunchback, he seemed and indeed was extremely handsome.

Undoubtedly, there is nothing accidental in the fact that the famous collection of spiritual texts of the 18th century, edited by Saint Macarius of Corinth and Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, where the path to holiness is canonically described, is called " Philokalia- "Love of beauty."

Liturgical beauty

It was the beauty of the divine liturgy, held in the great temple of the Holy Wisdom in Constantinople, that converted the Russians to the Christian faith. “We didn’t know where we were - in heaven or on earth,” Prince Vladimir’s envoys reported upon their return to Kyiv, “... therefore, we are unable to forget this beauty.” This liturgical beauty is expressed in our worship through four main forms:

“The yearly succession of fasts and feasts is beautiful time.

The architecture of church buildings is space presented as beautiful.

Holy icons are beautiful images. According to Father Sergius Bulgakov, “a person is called to be a creator not only to contemplate the beauty of the world, but also to express it”; iconography is "human participation in the transformation of the world."

Church singing with various tunes built on eight notes is sound presented beautiful: according to St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397), "in the psalm, instruction competes with beauty ... we make the earth respond to the music of heaven."

All these forms of created beauty - the beauty of nature, the saints, the divine liturgy - have two qualities in common: created beauty is diaphonic And theophanic. In both cases, beauty makes things and people clear. First of all, beauty makes things and people diaphanic in the sense that it motivates the special truth of each thing, its essential essence, to shine through it. As Bulgakov says, “things are transformed and shine with beauty; they reveal their abstract essence. However, here it would be more accurate to omit the word "abstract", since beauty is not indefinite and generalized; on the contrary, she is “extremely special,” which the young Florensky greatly appreciated. Secondly, beauty makes things and people theophanic, so that God shines through them. According to the same Bulgakov, "beauty is an objective law of the world, revealing to us the Divine Glory."

Thus, beautiful people and beautiful things point to what lies beyond them, to God. Through the visible, they testify to the presence of the invisible. Beauty is the transcendent made immanent; according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, she is "both beyond and dwells among us". It is noteworthy that Bulgakov calls beauty an "objective law". The ability to comprehend beauty, both divine and created, involves much more than our subjective "aesthetic" preferences. At the level of the spirit, beauty coexists with truth.

From a theophanic point of view, beauty as a manifestation of the presence and power of God can be called "symbolic" in the full and literal sense of the word. symbolon, from the verb symballo- "I bring together" or "I connect" - this is what brings into the right ratio and unites two different levels of reality. Thus, the holy gifts in the Eucharist are called "symbols" by the Greek Fathers, not in a weak sense, as if they were mere signs or visual reminders, but in a strong sense: they directly and effectively represent the true presence of the body and blood of Christ. On the other hand, holy icons are also symbols: they convey to the worshipers the feeling of the presence of the saints depicted on them. This also applies to any manifestation of beauty in created things: such beauty is symbolic in the sense that it personifies the divine. In this way beauty brings God to us, and us to God; This is a double sided door. Therefore, beauty is endowed with sacred power, acting as a conductor of God's grace, an effective means of cleansing from sins and healing. That is why one can simply proclaim that beauty will save the world.

Kenotic (decreasing) and sacrificial beauty

However, we still have not answered the question raised at the beginning. Isn't Dostoevsky's aphorism sentimental and far from life? What solution can be offered by invoking beauty in the face of oppression, the suffering of innocent people, the anguish and despair of the modern world?

Let us return to the words of Christ: "I am the good shepherd" (Jn 10:11). Immediately afterwards, He continues, "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." The mission of the Savior as a shepherd is clothed not only with beauty, but with a martyr's cross. Divine beauty, personified in the God-man, is saving beauty precisely because it is a sacrificial and diminishing beauty, a beauty that is achieved through self-emptying and humiliation, through voluntary suffering and death. Such beauty, the beauty of the suffering Servant, is hidden from the world, therefore it is said about him: “There is neither form nor majesty in Him; and we saw him, and there was no form in him that drew us to him” (Isaiah 53:2). Yet for believers, divine beauty, though hidden from view, is all dynamically present in the crucified Christ.

We can say, without any sentimentality or escapism, that "beauty will save the world", proceeding from the extreme importance of the fact that the transfiguration of Christ, His crucifixion and His resurrection are essentially related to each other, as aspects of one tragedy, an inseparable mystery. Transfiguration as a manifestation of uncreated beauty is closely associated with the cross (see Luke 9:31). The cross, in turn, must never be separated from the resurrection. The cross reveals the beauty of pain and death, the resurrection reveals the beauty beyond death. So, in the ministry of Christ, beauty embraces both darkness and light, and humiliation, and glory. The beauty embodied by Christ the Savior and transmitted by Him to the members of His body is, first of all, a complex and vulnerable beauty, and it is precisely for this reason that it is a beauty that can really save the world. Divine beauty, like the created beauty with which God endowed his world, does not offer us a way around suffering. In fact, she suggests a path passing through suffering and thus, beyond suffering.

Despite the consequences of the Fall, and despite our deep sinfulness, the world remains God's creation. He hasn't stopped being "perfectly handsome". Despite the alienation and suffering of people, there is still a divine beauty among us, still active, constantly healing and transforming. Even now, beauty is saving the world, and it will always continue to do so. But this is the beauty of God, who completely embraces the pain of the world He created, the beauty of God, who died on the cross and on the third day victoriously rose from the dead.

Translation from English by Tatyana Chikina