I considered this question earlier this year as part of my ongoing studies for an MA in Christianity and the Arts. An example might be the extravagant action of the woman anointing the head of Christ with oil. The Revised Standard Version renders the Greek ‘for she has done a beautiful thing to me’.
Whilst in the New Testament, we see the Hebraic idea of beauty disappear, we do see something more spiritual emerge that could well equate with beauty, for example Paul’s exhortation in Philippians 4: 8: ‘Finally Brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.’
There is a fusion here between beauty and holiness made more pronounced by Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6: 19: ‘What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?’
This association of beauty with holiness evident in the Old Testament becomes something in the New Testament that is converted into action that is evident inwardly in the lives of the Christian community. This is not simply something that is, or has been, but rather serves as an eschatological hope for the future as we are drawn in love and beauty into the mystery and holiness of God.
It is as though holiness through sanctification is appropriated in the heart of the believer where true beauty finds expression as shown in John 17: 17, 21: ‘Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. That they all may be as one as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.’
Beauty is revealed in our seeking after holiness, which is to be sought through the relationships we have with one another, to be embodied in love and in truth.
Revd Andrew Woodward
