The Theology of Beauty in the Context of the Theology of the Person

The impersonal cosmos is “for the whole of ancient philosophy the most important, primary, and most perfect work of beauty and art”⁷. Roman thought focused on the “social cosmos”, glorifying “a purely social” ideal of beauty, with its “very material and impersonal, elemental” character⁸. As a result, beauty threatens to become an “idol, detached from its personal basis”. For example, Lucian underlines the “great power” which beauty has over man” and notes that “beauty transcends moral principles”⁹! And while it is possible and even necessary to emphasize some insights of ancient thinkers on beauty’s essence, such as Socrates’ thoughts on “purposefulness as a logical principle” of beauty¹⁰, the intuition of the plasticity of beauty (beauty in the plastic arts), the Plotinian “hierarchical approach to the field of beauty”¹¹, his distinction between the object’s inner and outer beauty¹², and the εἶδος, a theory that reminds us of the patristic theory of logoi¹³, nevertheless, there is in ancient thought no integral definition of the concept of beauty.

As for the aesthetics of Neoplatonism it can be stated as follows: “beauty is perceived by the senses – a visible and audible cosmos that is centred on the Earth”¹⁴. “Plotinian ‘being’ has the power to ‘objectively’ bloom with beauty, yet ... it is a special kind of objectivity, which is not correlated with subjectivity”¹⁵, i.e. with the personal origin, as the role of first violin in the Neoplatonic understanding of beauty is played by “the all-encompassing oneness of being”¹⁶. Plotinus’s One is absolutely single and does not within itself hold any trace of differentiation. Plotinus's thought could be said to “escape” from beauty as perceived by the senses ‘to its native Fatherland’, to a higher level of spiritual beauty”¹⁷. True Christianity never was or is a place for such escapes from the material world. Every sphere of life receives its integrity through its hypostatic origin and plays an important role in the beauty of existence – the possibility of transfiguration is inherent in it. “The beauty of Plotinus is inseparably connected with the essence” which is “the indication of its bearer’s existence”¹⁸ but it cannot escape having something of the character of a totalitarianism, lacking its own originality. In Christianity, as we shall see, beauty is simultaneously and inseparably related to both the personhood and essence, which is what gives it its true freedom.

In Christian tradition it is the God of Revelation, the unity and triplicity of the Holy Trinity which become the ontological foundation of beauty. “The entire range of beauty’s classical definitions was already well known to the apologists who made an effort to rethink them in the spirit of new Christian values”¹⁹. In Christian thought beauty receives its definition through the name and properties of God²⁰. The author of the Corpus Areopagiticum calls God «αὐτόκαλλος» – Self-beauty, Beauty by Itself²¹, original Beauty²², and in the relevant Scholia God is called the first Beauty²³. Reflecting on the Union of the Trinity, the Areopagite speaks of it as full of every kind of divine harmony and sacred beauty²⁴. St. Gregory the Theologian, describing the mystery of the Trinity as “infinite connectedness of three infinities”²⁵, compares the beauty of the Trinity to the beauty and majesty of the sky²⁶. He also calls the beauty of God first (primary)²⁷, innermost²⁸, accessible to us only at the threshold²⁹. St. Gregory of Nyssa maintains that God is the fullness of beauty³⁰ that is completely inexpressible and inconceivable³¹. Venerable Maximus the Confessor speaks of “the unapproachable beauty of the holy and majestic Trinity”³² and of “the invisible beauty of divine glory”³³.

Thus, original beauty is the Trinity, for the Trinity itself is at once both a paradoxical and magnificent unity in diversity and diversity in unity. The basis for this paradox is exactly the Hypostatic principle of existence in God. The Essence taken by itself is not paradoxical and would not give place to the “play of beauty”³⁴. The three Hypostases or Persons differ in the Unity of Their existence and are united in Their diversity. This is the eternal beauty of Personal Existence of the Three in unity of Their essence and of the One in the triplicity of the Hypostases. “God by Himself is the fullness of beauty, He is beauty of beauty, simultaneously in an ontological and a personal sense: truly His essence shines from the depths of love, of the mutual gift of the Persons that committed Themselves to unity³⁵. Thus, to be beautiful implies to be involved in the eternal beauty of the Personal communion in the unity of existence, the eternal image of the existence of the Trinity – the triplicity of the tropoi of existence and the unity of the logos of being³⁶. “The whole … pattern of three-Personal life is to be played out in each of us” or, in other words, “each of us has got to enter that pattern”³⁷.

“From You does beauty flow out to all creation”³⁸. God the Trinity, being the original Beauty, is called the Cause of all other beauty³⁹ and that is why He is also called “the archetype of beauty”⁴⁰. Although God’s beauty is qualitatively superior to all created beauty, so even that divine beauty can be said to be beyond beauty⁴¹, however “there is absolutely nothing that exists that would be devoid of participation in this beauty, since as ‘the Truth of all discourses’ declares ‘Behold, it was good exceedingly’ (Gen. 1. 31)”⁴². The Creator as “the only Good and Beautiful is the only Reason for all beautiful and good”⁴³. «For in the simple, supernatural nature of Beauty everything beautiful universally pre-exists as in the Cause» κατ'αἰτίαν προῦφέστηκεν). From this Beauty everything existing is granted to be beautiful in accordance with its own logos⁴⁴. God pre-possesses beauty in Himself⁴⁵, He is before creation the Source, Origin and Cause of beauty, and so possesses beauty in abundance⁴⁶.

Thus, the beauty of creation has its basis in God and in the «logoi» of God. “Beautiful in the true sense is what follows its natural purpose, God’s plan – that is one of the basic premises of patristic thought”⁴⁷. Matter is involved in beauty⁴⁸, contrary to the attribution to it of evil in Neoplatonism, Origenism and Gnosticism. St. Methodius of Olympus observes that all creation undoubtedly needs God’s beauty⁴⁹ and at the same time it manifests the Creator’s beauty⁵⁰. Thus, St. Maximus, following St. Gregory of Nyssa⁵¹, asserts that knowledge of the Creator comes “from the greatness and beauty of creation”⁵². God’s logoi reveal through the beauty of creation God’s beauty, and though they are His energy, they still belong to the Three Persons of the Trinity. Consequently, the logoi are not an impersonal energy of thought, but rather the personal energy of the Hypostases of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Personal relationship of Each Person to the logoi of creation constitutes their eternal relationship to creation itself, to each of us, it determines our beauty, as well as our love and commitment to God:«τῷ ἀῤῥήτῳτῆς θείας καλλονῆς ἔρωτι»⁵³. The Beauty draws (attracts-καλοῦν) everybody to it, which is why it is called beauty (κάλλος), for it brings all in union⁵⁴ and “being True Beauty, arouses love and becomes Beloved”⁵⁵.

If the logoi and their innate beauty constitute a fundamental and inalienable part of the created being, the diversity of creation’s possible responses to God's love corresponds to the free choice of its tropos of existence. In case of conformity between the tropos of existence and logos of nature, the beauty of the individual develops dynamically, yet if the tropos and logos are inconsistent, then a gradual disfigurement, a distortion of the initial beauty occurs. Thus, St. Gregory of Nyssa says that angels “continually behold the ‘Father of immortality’ and this vision” promotes “permanent transfiguration in their imitation of the beauty which they behold in the Archetype”⁵⁶. The topic of the Archetype and its image is closely tied in with the concept of the beauty of God and creation, creation’s imitation of the Creator according to the tropos of existence chosen by rational creation. The same can be attributed to man: “People who love God ... look like the Lord”⁵⁷ and this similarity gradually develops into something great and profound.

“Endowed with a special beauty, even in comparison with visible Paradise, was one in whom was implanted knowledgeable Paradise – Adam, the crown of God’s creation, created “in the image” of God Himself, in contrast to the rest of creation. For, in the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa the first man was “great in merit, because he was put to reign over the earth and all upon it, and was beautiful being the image of the Archetype’s beauty”⁵⁸. St. Gregory the Theologian calls ‘concealed’ the best beauty of man⁵⁹, that the Lord wishes to revive in us already here⁶⁰ and in the age to come⁶¹, and which is the envy of the devil⁶².

The Son of God is called by David “the Father’s hand and strength”⁶³. He is “the miraculous beauty”⁶⁴ of God the Father⁶⁵. “Beauty” is understood to be the “divine dignity of the Lord”⁶⁶ and His Divinity is inseparable from His Person. According to Psalm 15 (16).11, communion with God gives joy and His beauty gives life. The Son of God is spoken of as an imprint of The Archetype’s Beauty who comes to his own image – man, and who in turn, in his own “God-like beauty” recognizes the beauty of the Archetype revealed in Christ⁶⁷. The “model of beauty” and the fullness of human beauty is the “God-man, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”⁶⁸.

Made possible through the hypostatic unity of natures, “the great attraction of the Person of Christ is that at one time He is both God and Man, not just God and not just a man”⁶⁹. It is exactly the hypostatic union of the Divinity and humanity in the Person of Christ that makes “incorruptible and divine the beauty of flesh, substance, and matter”⁷⁰. Hence St. Athanasius of Alexandria asserts that the beauty and glory of Christ’s body is incomprehensible to human mind⁷¹. The human being as one whole can acquire its absolute beauty⁷² only through Christ’s Person and conformity with the divine-human tropos of existence revealed in Him.

However, the beauty of Christ’s Person is not closed in on itself or withdrawn, for it consists in the beauty of His relationship with the Father and Holy Spirit, as well as “in His divine delicacy”⁷³ towards the human person, which is the image of the divine Hypostases’ uncreated beauty, that very beauty through which God draws mankind to Himself⁷⁴. From the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit man is granted beauty and love for beauty. “The Holy Spirit is directly called the Source and Cause of luminous beauty”⁷⁵, for He is the Communicator of uncreated energies and divine light to us. The beauty of the Trinity, the communion of Persons comes to us in the light of God’s Energy. “Absolute light is absolutely beautiful – Love itself (of the Three Persons of the Trinity – Hieromonk M.Z.) in its completeness and it makes spiritually beautiful any personality. Crowning the love of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit is the means of beauty’s contemplation”⁷⁶. It is the Spirit that reveals to us the ineffable beauty of the inter-Trinitarian communion and the beauty of the relation of the Trinity to each created person. The third Hypostasis of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit gives “direct understanding of beauty, the prophetic awareness of harmony and therefore the steady pursuit of it”⁷⁷.

God is the Heavenly Image through which “everything is delimited”⁷⁸ and at the same time united. “The union, love, and communion of all occurs due to the Beautiful One”⁷⁹ (ibid). This unity in diversity is one of the main themes of St. Maximus the Confessor⁸⁰. At every level of existence there is present the beauty of diversity, which was introduced by the Creator Himself in a single cosmic order. But, as in God Himself, neither difference, nor unity dominate. “The logoi of the separate and individual are embraced ...by the universal logoi”⁸¹, just as the individual tropoi are included into the higher ranking integral tropoi.

While being integrated into the wider cosmic hierarchy, the human being, according to the Creator's plan, has in its origins an ontologically central position in the universe. Man has been endowed with “primeval beauty”⁸² not only for his own sake. His “soul is in between God and matter, having the power to connect itself with One and the other”⁸³. According to Ven. Maximus man’s main purpose is “the task of uniting in himself” without fusion, that is with the preservation of distinctions, “as in a microcosm the whole cosmos” through beauty and for the sake of the beauty of “union with God”⁸⁴. Despite the fact that the world appears to us consisting of “independent existing units”, it is called to be bound by means of human personal participation “into an integral harmonious unity, witnessing to its One Creator”⁸⁵. “Beauty is a fulfilled unity”. And it is personal “love that ensures within the unity the splendor of diversity”⁸⁶.

St. Gregory the Theologian underlines the relationship between God’s “immutable beauty” and the rule of order in the organization of the world⁸⁷. The world’s order is directly related to the way of the delimitation and unity of things, like love and peace, about which it is said that the law of love and peace via its bonds makes the cosmos “incomparably beautiful”⁸⁸. Given the correct order, beauty is structured in a certain hierarchical subordination, one beauty shines through another – beauty of the soul through beauty of the body⁸⁹. (ibid) However, as in God there is no hierarchy of Hypostases in the strict sense, so the order and hierarchy of the cosmos, firstly, does not introduce a hierarchy of created hypostases-persons, and secondly, they are embedded in the world’s organic integrity. Thus, the beauty of the Theotokos was both external and internal⁹⁰. According to St. Maximus the Confessor, the body and soul are mutually complementary⁹¹, forming the unity of created human hypostasis which possesses priceless value in God’s eyes. It is important to emphasize here that the principle of order is grounded in the hypostatic and natural origins of existence. The structure of the logoi and tropoi defines the beauty of existence. In contrast to the disregard of the hierarchy’s lower levels of being that inevitably arises in Neoplatonic and Origenistic ideologies, in Christianity nothing in God’s creation can be defined as superfluous in its origins, lacking in fullness of existence or distorted.

According to our analysis, genuine beauty is fundamentally linked with the hypostatic, personal origin and consequently it should reflect its characteristic properties: irreducibility to nature and inseparability from it, non-rationality and its expression through the kinetics of personal communion and the dynamics of nature, religiousness, catholicity, freedom and creativity, uniqueness and integrity, verbality and morality.

Is it possible to express the formula of beauty through certain correlation of natural characteristics which would seem appropriate for something beautiful? The golden section in the material world, self-sacrifice in the spiritual sphere and other principles, might reflect the external “laws of beauty” that define certain tropoi of existence, but they are not able to express the full concept of beauty. Thus, there is a beauty in moderate asymmetry, while spiritual beauty seems to be completely “elusive for logical formulas”⁹². “Beauty ... is described and ascertained in its existence, yet it stands beyond the methods and means of scientific research”⁹³. In fact “beauty is mysterious”⁹⁴ and though rationalism tries to reduce beauty to a sensual and emotional perception or to rational principles, yet beauty is something higher. Indeed it brings a certain pleasure to our feelings and satisfaction to our mind but it is rooted in absolute Beauty which is essentially personal. The main reason for beauty’s irreducibility to the natural-material sphere is the transcendence of its Source and the Hypostatic being of this Source, which cannot be reduced, in particular, to the concept of a tropos of existence. “Beauty in its nature is indefinable”⁹⁵, it’s “not only an aesthetic category, but also a metaphysical category”⁹⁶. “The question of the value of human beauty is beyond the boundary of aesthetics, though stays in contact with it”⁹⁷. “Beauty, realized in the nature of creation, is, however, ‘supernatural’, ‘metaphysical’”⁹⁸.

Furthermore, we are constantly confronted with the subjective aspect of the perception of beauty. Even if beauty is recognized by most observers as beautiful, yet it is reflected in each subject’s mind in a different way. “The experience of beauty, comprehending beauty is a rather mystical experience, it takes man outside of himself and puts him face to face” with the Personal God. It has in itself a “remnant” that is irreducible to natural parameters and is associated with the mystery of personal relationship⁹⁹.

The inner vector of beauty’s logos leads us beyond the limits of our physical world to the “otherworldly beauty”¹⁰⁰, “rising above empiricism”¹⁰¹ and then returning to the transfiguration of this world according to the highest ideals of beauty. Thus, once again beauty is expressed through a particular way of being of nature, while still remaining irreducible to that notion.

It is necessary to underline the kinetic nature of beauty. Truly beautiful is the eternal hypostatic-natural movement of love between the Hypostases in God, and the beauty of creation should be a reflection of the divine kinetics. Of course, there is also another aspect of the movement of creation – the aspect of becoming. The world began through the movement from non-existence to existence. Yet there is something more to this movement of becoming than just the inertia of creation. Even the very act of creation reflects the eternal kinetics of the Creator: it is the eternal movement of love that has given birth to the beauty of movement in creation. Moreover, creation’s movement possesses its logos: its goal is the development of relations with its Creator, deification, striving to infinity¹⁰², which are inseparably connected to the personal communion of created personalities with the uncreated Hypostases of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And even impersonal, soulless matter, through the beauty of its dynamics and the tropoi of its existence, displays a “universal meaning”¹⁰³, reflecting the creative logoi of the personal God.

In the beauty of created movement there can be distinguished some aspects that are constant and some that are dynamic. The author of the Corpus Areopagiticum distinguishes different types of movement of the mind and souls: circular, straight, and spiral¹⁰⁴. And while it can be said that the “the beauty of created being becomes constant and unchangeable to the extent of its involvement with the First Beauty – God”¹⁰⁵, this “permanence” and “unchangeableness” of the higher forms of beauty does not imply that it is absolutely “static”. So the Trinity is unchanged, yet the beauty of love’s movement between the Persons is the apogee and archetype of any movement. This beauty is antinomically both constant and dynamic. If the aspect of constancy in the movement may be related to the natural plan, to the logoi of being, then the aspect of novelty in movement is associated with the hypostatic origin that generates new modes or tropoi of the dynamics of nature.

Since religion is a union with God, everything which stimulates the soul’s movement towards its Creator and Provider, should be recognized as religious in its innermost essence. True beauty in the life of creation, reflecting the beauty of the eternal Trinity, elevates and excites the human personality to communicate with the Personal Source of Beauty.

“Faith can also transfigure beauty itself: in sacred texts, calligraphy, icons, choral singing, abundance of church art ... The Bible perceives art as a gift .... Everywhere the Creator and His creation meet in the beauty not of ownership, but of collaboration. Universal art can be perceived in the liturgy, where aesthetics become contemplation. Beauty transforms the world into ‘an ocean of symbols’”¹⁰⁶, having deep religious meaning.

The perichoresis of the created and uncreated tropoi of existence, realised within the created personality, corresponds to the process of the religious development of the beauty of existence.

The property of catholicity requires, above all, a personal openness, a focus on the “other”, interpersonal communion and community. Beauty-in-itself is dead, sick with narcissism, while true beauty is open, it exists for others and presumes “another one”. Above all else it is the property of the giving of oneself that refers “to the Beauty of God”¹⁰⁷.

The very principle of the Revelation of God’s beauty and splendour to man is based on the principle of catholicity. God wishes to have Adam included in the beauty of communion with Him. “Revelation means love which reveals the beauty” of God and awaits our personal response¹⁰⁸. It is in this personal relationship that the “indispensable and incomparable value of each person’s individuality is revealed in all its beauty”¹⁰⁹. Beauty is perceived by the human person and is revealed through interpersonal communion. Here is especially meant the evangelical beauty of a soul giving itself to others.

St. Maximus the Confessor describes the obscuring of divine beauty as being the result of the human refusal to be sustained by the Word and the falling away from the divine life¹¹⁰. Thus, it was precisely because of the interruption of communion with God that man lost the beauty of his existence. Instead of genuine beauty a “fake beauty” emerges that strives to outshine the natural image of the “sacred beauty that is preserved for God and for the world to come”¹¹¹, i.e. beauty intended for God and communion with Him in love. According to St. Gregory Palamas, Uncreated Light is “the power of resurrection” and “beauty of the world to come”¹¹², for if “sin distorts the human being”, “grace beautifies him”¹¹³. The beauty of Adam when he was oriented towards communion with God, consisted in the incorruptibility of his entire composition¹¹⁴, yet once Adam lost contact with God’s grace, he committed according to St. Maximus the Confessor a “flight from Beauty”¹¹⁵. “The idea of autonomous Beauty”¹¹⁶ was fatal for its progenitors exactly because it is foreign to the personal ties that bind God with human being and human beings between themselves¹¹⁷. This actually leads to idolatry, consisting in an “escape” from our personal origin. Only through resuming the dialogue with God can a human being become “noble and beautiful again”¹¹⁸. St. Maximus evokes the restoration of the “undecaying of the ancient beauty” through the Incarnation and through the communion of natures in Christ, and thus through the restoration of communion between man and God¹¹⁹.

Since the uncreated energy by which the communion of man with the Creator is restored belongs to the Three Persons in God at once, it is eternally the energy of personal communion. Realized in the image of the Triune being “for the sake of another One”, the beauty of interpersonal communion, influencing other persons “without command, without violation of freedom ... can overcome not only ordinary selfishness, but also titanic pride: it may encourage a person to forget his proud ‘ego’ and selflessly serve the Good”¹²⁰. Implemented in the image of communion of the Persons in the Trinity, the kingdom of God presents the fullness of beauty¹²¹. In the age to come, those contemplating the beauty and dignity of God’s image in each other “will be filled with mutual joy”¹²².

Only the innermost beauty of interpersonal love can reveal the mystery of the personal freedom of the one who loves. Only through beauty can freedom be known. “The path to freedom leads through beauty”. Beauty is far from being just an art¹²³ . Authentic beauty is designed to “liberate our freedom”¹²⁴. Even in the beautiful movement of animals there is freedom, though it cannot be called complete, since it depends on external powers and innate instincts. But how much more full of beauty is the genuinely free love of the Trinity. True freedom is beautiful, while despotism and anarchy are equally hideous. True beauty is free, while false beauty is internally constrained and unstable. “Not through coercion is beauty comprehended in the world”¹²⁵ and the knowledge of the Truth’s beauty liberates¹²⁶.

The beauty of the created world “was designed by God and is also generated by man, yet only through his God-given creativity”¹²⁷. Although not every kind of creativity can be considered objectively beautiful, yet the classics possess objective beauty, since beauty is not just a “subjective phenomenon”¹²⁸. “Beauty is one of the divine names, perhaps the most neglected, but in it there is the impulse of creativity”¹²⁹. The aim of creative work is beauty and good¹³⁰ and authentic beauty always shows its creative origin. Thus, the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov was deeply convinced of the creative nature of beauty as the transforming power belonging to the ideal origin: He insisted that “beauty is the transfiguration of matter through an embodiment of another, super-material origin”¹³¹.

Those who genuinely create beauty in their lives are holy people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and are in a continuous synergetic co-creation with God. “Man is called to become the deliverer or creator of beauty, restoring its resemblance to the image of God, which is its foundation and vocation”¹³² .

Real beauty is unique, inimitable, without a trace of “cliché” in it. Its uniqueness surpasses the simple sum of the natural properties of the subject. It is in this very uniqueness that the attraction of beauty is concealed. The uniqueness of beauty consists also in the unique way in which it is perceived by each personality. F. Dostoevsky pondered on the different ways in which human beings perceive beauty, the various “manners of looking at beauty, perceiving beauty, desiring beauty”. Beauty allows us “to shape its inherent ambiguity in accordance with our own ‘ideals’. It allows itself to be viewed according to the beholder’s capability”¹³³. It is the personality that both manifests and perceives itself in the unique complex of the modes of realization of its freedom.

Integrity implies wholeness as well as purposefulness. In line with this, on one hand, beauty is associated with “rationality”¹³⁴ and “is the ultimate objective of cosmic and human life”. On the other hand, “if anything is perceived holistically by the human being, then it is beauty”¹³⁵, which is associated with the “absolute integrity of everything which exists”¹³⁶. “The combination of truth with beauty is an integral transformation, enlightening our life. If beauty is separated from the true and the good it begins to decompose into ugliness”¹³⁷. “Schiller ... when studying the nature of art, wrote: ‘Beauty is the merging of reason and sensitivity, and this inter-penetration is the true reality’”¹³⁸. “Through beauty the value of all the other types of the Good is revealed in an especially fascinating way”¹³⁹.

“Orthodoxy holds an integral teaching of beauty which fully covers the practical field, extending to all spheres of human life – from the sphere of work to the sphere of mystical experience”¹⁴⁰. We believe following the Church Fathers that it is the personal, hypostatic origin of man that is the base (σύστασις) of the integral being of our nature, giving it beauty and uniqueness¹⁴¹. One part of our natural existence is literally enhypostasized by human personality and this is how it acquires its integrity; another part of our nature, which is not to do with our individuality, nonetheless finds its beauty through being included in the energetic sphere of the personality’s actions.

The verbality of creation reflects the beauty of the Creator’s logoi – God’s plan for the world. They correspond to the beauty of existence, which shines through even despite the consequences of the Fall. According to Berdyaev, “beauty corresponds to God’s ideas about creation and man”¹⁴². Beauty is described, glorified and hymned through human words, and although it is only with difficulty that it is reflected by words, it demands the use of words and it corresponds to divine words about it. According to Metr. Kallistos (Ware)"s interpretation of Maximus's theory of the divine logoi everything created is not just an object but a personal word of the Creator addressed to us”¹⁴³. It’s important to understand that in Christian thought the logoi of creation are intrinsic to God Himself, therefore the beauty of creation through its logoi bears in itself an inseparable imprint of divine eternal beauty.

St. Gregory of Nyssa speaks of the verbal character of our nature as one of the most important features of God’s image in us. “Do you see in yourself word and reason (διάνοιαν), the imitation of the true Reason and Word”¹⁴⁴. The beauty of the divine mind, of the Logos “shows and proves the truth”¹⁴⁵ for “it is a component of the truth. If something is ugly, then it’s deceptive. If words, by which we express the divine, are not beautiful, then they are false”¹⁴⁶. “If everything is determined by the rays of the divine Logos, it is the human being that most fully reflects the Logos, as a conscious personality, and hence it is that human being that should give meaning and words to the silent glorification of the world”¹⁴⁷, and thus realize its original beauty. Therefore, “any beauty perceived via the senses... if it is not viewed through the prism of lust, can be evaluated positively and from it can be made conclusions of a spiritual nature”¹⁴⁸. Even if beauty is lacking in integrity, fragmented, it still carries imprinted in itself the recollection of the Logos and the hypostatic union in Him of the created and uncreated natures, His divine-human mode (theandric tropos) of existence.

True beauty gradually fosters morality. The beauty of personal relationships is the highest beauty¹⁴⁹ that exists in this world. Beauty is not an abstract idea but rather a moral category. Already due to its integrity, beauty must include in itself a moral dimension. Taken separately, beauty “for its own sake” can lead “to madness”¹⁵⁰.

That which is truly “beautiful is identical to the Good”¹⁵¹. So, a beautiful face or figure will become a symbol of cold cruelty in the absence of the moral beauty of the heart. Abstract beauty loses its appeal and may even become dreadful. St. Clement of Alexandria in his expanded doctrine on beauty “gives it an important role in his gnoseology and especially in ethics”¹⁵². For him “beauty” quite often means moral beauty and, as in Plato’s works, it is often identified with the Good¹⁵³. “True beauty is seen in a morally perfect man. For the Church Apologists the moral beauty of a person stands as one of the main values in the world of human existence”¹⁵⁴. St. John Chrysostom also develops a hierarchical distinction of beauty: “true beauty is not known for its physical appearance but rather in its morals and behavior”¹⁵⁵. In the subsequent historical development of Christian ethics “virtue understood primarily as a complex of personality’s active positive deeds becomes one of the important indicators of human beauty”¹⁵⁶. The beauty of virtue can be defined as the beauty of a “personal movement” that corresponds to the mode (tropos) of existence of human nature when it is realized “in accordance with the logos of nature”¹⁵⁷.

However, the human “thirst for beauty” seems to be too easily satisfied by various surrogates and “the aesthetics of everyday life can be easily mistaken for life in beauty”¹⁵⁸. “Spiritual beauty, the dazzling beauty of a radiant and luminous personality, appears for a feeble and carnal man”¹⁵⁹ absolutely inaccessible. Yet, it is exactly the genuine beauty of the human person that is crucial to the synthesis of beauty in all aspects of life. That is why a clear hierarchy of beauty is so vital, which, like the hierarchy of morality, is a natural consequence of our hypostatic origin which is the very foundation of the categories of beauty and morality. The highest example of moral beauty is the divine hypostatic love, manifested in the sacrifice of Christ on Golgotha¹⁶⁰.

If in the pre- and non-Christian world existence and beauty, like “the bloom of existence”, are “attributes of the cosmos”, in the Christian world-view existence with its beauty are “intimate and personal properties of the absolute God, and at the same time His gift to creation”¹⁶¹. It is in our human “personal dignity” that the wealth and imperishable beauty of our existence¹⁶² consists. Following Fr. Olivier Clement, one can say that “beauty is personhood, since Christ is beauty in Person, beauty enlightened, transfigured”¹⁶³. The hypostasis, which defines the particular mode of the existence of nature, is responsible for the beauty of this existence, and the criterion of true beauty is the extent of realization of its key hypostatic characteristics. “The beauty of Paradise”¹⁶⁴ which Adam and Eve failed to realize, consisted in the possession and the cultivation of this dignity of the hypostasis. It can now be realized through Christ – the Second Adam – and through our own personal participation in His action which is already possible in this world and, as a result of it, in the eschatological “fullness of time”¹⁶⁵.