Beauty is the most mysterious (and most misunderstood) of the transcendents, evoking another world. We experience beauty every day with all five of our senses: i.e., seeing a rainbow, hearing “Chevaliers de Sangreal” by Hans Zimmer, smelling “Neroli Savuage” by Creed, feeling fine silk and tasting dark chocolate. Groothuis reminds us that “While it is real, beauty is not completely analyzable according to materialistic categories – that is in the language of natural science.” In other words, there is something other-worldly about beauty that defies logical deductive analysis.

While the Christian worldview understands that beauty is objective because it is ultimately grounded in the Triune God, naturalism has no transcendent ground for beauty. Beauty therefore becomes not only necessarily subjective, but is ultimately a meaningless concept.

Our inability to appreciate beauty is a direct consequence of sin, which would explain many “differences of opinion” with respect to objective beauty. When Christ frees someone from their bondage to sin and they subsequently walk in the renewing and regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, there is a growing awareness of transcendent beauty. The norm for a Christian is growing appreciation and awe for the beauty of creation. Our aesthetic discernment sharpens as we mature in Christ.

Why do we hunger for beauty? Because we instinctly yearn for paradise lost. We ache for a better world. In moments when we experience transcendent beauty, we briefly get a glimpse of an alternative existence that enthralls and calls to us, a doorway that is securely closed to us but which the gospel of Jesus Christ opens for us and offers us the chance to go through.

Francis Maier writes about Beauty here concluding,

“What I see in the face of my wife, the woman I’ve loved and shared a life with for the past 52 years, is not just the pleasing color of her eyes, or the graceful arrangement of her features—although I’m quite happy about both, thank you very much—but a harmony of soul and action, a harmony of the inner self, the self she gives away freely to others. That kind of beauty shines outward. It gives light, and warmth, and life.” 

“Beauty is the forgotten element of human dignity and free societies. We need beauty to spark our imagination, to guide our scientific intuitions, and to see God’s reality, clearly and directly. Beauty reminds us that higher things do exist; that we can know, and live in, the light of truth; and that we can reflect that light to promote the common good. And that work of living and reflecting the light belongs to each of us.”

Robert Baron curtly responds in this video to those who would claim beauty is merely subjectively inherent in their own perception instead of objectively resident in creation.