Beauty (and the Banana)

A Theopoetic Aesthetic

Brian C. Nixon

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781725285323, 9781725285330
• eBook ISBN: 9781725285347
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Aesthetics in Philosophy

What is it that makes something beautiful? Is beauty solely in the eye of the beholder, or something deeper, more significant? In Beauty (and the Banana), Nixon writes as an introductory book for Christian leaders, providing the reader an overview of the historical, hermeneutical, and heuristic considerations of beauty. Using the artwork Comedian (a banana taped to a wall) by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan as a springboard, Nixon addresses various fundamental factors of beauty--ontology (being), teleology (form and understanding), and immutability (transcendence and eternality). Integrating poetry and classical ideals throughout, Beauty (and the Banana)'s response to the above questions may surprise all who read--beauty is more than meets the eye.

Chapter 2

Historical

How Has Beauty Been Understood?

With the earliest human presence on planet earth, one finds beauty. Beauty can be found within art (early cave paintings), music (the presence of flutes in many cultures), writing, or applied arts (pots, chairs, garments, blankets, etc.)—all used for living and understanding. Beauty is found in nature as well. From the mountain peaks of the Himalaya’s to the ocean reef of Australia, beauty is. Because of the ever-present presence of beauty, people throughout the ages have grappled with its meaning, trying to measure it and come to terms with its reality. People respond to beauty. And just as important, they’ve created beautiful objects to facilitate beauty.

To help answer the question of how beauty is understood within human culture, I’ve summarized history into four large epochs—four “C’s”: Classical, Christian, Cartesian, and Contemporary. Most historian would be quick to point out that there are many variant subcategories and nuances found within each suggested epoch (not all cultures were Christian, as an example); he or she would be right. And in two cases (Plotinus and Paul), I’ve reversed their chronological order to stress his particular influence within a school of thought. I’ve summarized the epochs for clarity and to be concise. Furthermore, I’ll only highlight key representatives of each era, not a comprehensive analysis of all the main personages.

Classical (800 BC–70 AD): The Ancient World

The classical world is not only a Western phenomenon, taking root in ancient Greece, but a worldwide phenomenon. From the paleolithic to chalcolithic eras, through the Bronze and Iron Ages, ancient Mesopotamia, China, India, Japan, the Mayans of South America, Europeans, the Aboriginals of Australia, and African civilizations left the world artifacts and works of stunning beauty and originality. History shows us that all cultures integrate objects of beauty at some level. In most cases, though, little was written concerning a specific understanding of beauty, a philosophy, if you will; instead, the various people groups created beauty, “cryptically encoded in their works.”126

We do, however, find facets of beauty sprinkled in writings. As an example, the ancient Indian philosophers incorporated physical and metaphysical pursuits in their tomes, touching on harmony, balance, and form, all aspects of beauty.127 The Chinese incorporated the Three Perfections (poetry, painting, and calligraphy), valuing “transcendence of objective representation and emotional expression.”128 The Japanese aesthetic included concepts such as mono no aware (pathos), wabi (simple beauty), sabi (rustic, solitary beauty), yugen (mysterious or hidden beauty), and ike (refinement).129 And the Navajo (Dine’) people of North America (whose ancestors arrived from ancient Mongolia) integrate a blessing in their ethos, calling a person to “Walk in Beauty” (Hozho). For the Navajo, Hozho means to “live in beauty, harmony, balance, happiness, [and] good health,”130 walking in integrity with the world. According to Robert Drake (University of Arizona), “[Hozho is the] co...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• What Is Being and Beauty?
• Historical
• Hermeneutically
• Heuristically
• Bibliography