By JOHN TUTTLE
Beauty: What It Is & Why It Matters by John-Mark L. Miravalle (2019) is available from Sophia Institute Press. Visit sophiainstitute.com or call 800-888-9344.
Beauty: What It Is & Why It Matters is a magnificent and manageable volume leading its reader down the path of the transcendentals. In what might be one of the best works of Catholic literature published in the past year, John-Mark L. Miravalle makes us look beyond the secular notion that beauty is a matter of personal preference.
We see beauty in a fresh light as he makes us consider beauty for what it is: an absolute that cannot be redefined, as grounded in certainty as truth and goodness — and just as important.
It is the direct moral implications that beauty has to offer in our relationship with it that Miravalle punctuates. As objective as the other transcendentals, beauty also has its origin and fulfillment in God, the Creator all things visible and invisible.
Beauty, described as a crucial combination of order and surprise, has the significant role of leading our minds to a more profound reality — our Lord. When beauty becomes distracting to the point that it detracts from our recognition and reverence of God (when it is either boring or banal), it has failed to fulfill its proper action.
Like the individual virtues of Christianity, beauty is manifested in a mean between extremes. Its perfection lies in the moderation of both symmetry and shock. An overabundance of either would likely prove disastrous, limiting its function as a useful medium for conveying truth.
Furthermore, as the author shows, humanity has an obligation to be aware of beauty and to look after its development. Beauty is to be championed through the arts. Not only do we have a moral obligation as makers of fine art, but we also have a responsibility from the point of the observer of beauty. Intention, as is duly noted in the book, is an essential and irrevocable aspect of any action including creating and appreciating material beauty.
Miravalle touches base on many major forms of creative expression. He also finds the proper occasion for providing the Christian fundamentals of the art of cuisine and the talent of healthy humor.
Miravalle pulls sources from numerous writers and philosophers of renown who have weighed in on the wide and wonderful landscape heralded as beauty. He builds up to his understanding of the nature and function of beauty by standing on such intellectual pillars as Aristotle, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, and, of course, the Scriptures.
Approachable by the average reader, the early portion of the book is dedicated to examining what constitutes beauty and where it can be discovered. Though scholarly throughout, the later segment of the work seems to include a more personal, somewhat conversational tone than earlier parts.
Miravalle’s work is a touching, in-depth exploration into the oft-neglected musing of what beauty actually is and what bearing it has on our existence. The book is an insightful introduction into this unique transcendental with all its potential benefits and shortcomings.
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