The Magnificat
I have a question for any readers willing to answer.
Listen to the following
Magnificat anima mea Dominum,
et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salvatore meo,
quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae.
Ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes,
quia fecit mihi magna,
qui potens est,
et sanctum nomen eius,
et misericordia eius in progenies et progenies
timentibus eum.
Fecit potentiam in brachio suo,
dispersit superbos mente cordis sui;
deposuit potentes de sede
et exaltavit humiles;
esurientes implevit bonis
et divites dimisit inanes.
Suscepit Israel puerum suum,
recordatus misericordiae,
sicut locutus est ad patres nostros,
Abraham et semini eius in saecula.
For those of you (like me) who do not speak Latin:
My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded
the low estate of his handmaiden:
for, behold, from henceforth
all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him
from generation to generation.
He hath shewed strength with his arm;
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
and hath exalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath holpen his servant Israel,
in remberence of his mercy;
As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham,
and to his seed for ever.
My question is this: is there a relation between the time periods when mankind produced it greatest works of fine art, and the time periods when Christianity was ascendant? If so, why so?
What is the relation between the beautiful and the divine?
Any answer which says that beauty is in the eye of the beholder need not be written. I suspect that those who say such things hate beauty and wish it destroyed, and make public displays of shocking and disgusting crap in order to vent that hatred. I submit that if beauty actually were in the eye of the beholder, art would neither be deliberately beautiful nor deliberately ugly; it would be purely random, changing for each individual each hour.
Such expressions of loyalty to the concept of aesthetic subjectivism perhaps are no more than an excuse to prevent the question given above from being asked.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
