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Why the beautiful is not the good
By Spengler
Pearls grow in oysters to soothe irritation; the high art of the West grew pearl-like in Christendom around an abrasion it could not heal: the refusal of mere humans to place all their hopes upon the promise of life after death. Christianity made Europe by offering the kingdom of heaven to barbarian invaders, while allowing them to keep their tribal culture. The high art of the West gave these rude men a presentiment of the kingdom of heaven and formed an authentic Christian culture opposed to pagan holdovers.
Pope Benedict XVI understands the power of high art as well as any man alive. At the center of his concerns are the musicians and the Jews (See last week’s Spengler, The pope, the musicians and the Jews). If the Jew converts the Christian’s inner pagan, as Franz Rosenzweig said, the musician gives him a foretaste of heaven. The beautiful, within the Catholic “theology of aesthetics”, forms the earthly visage of the unearthly good. Yet the good is not quite the same as the beautiful. High culture betrayed the interests of the Church almost upon its birth during the late 15th century, and again during the classical German period. On both occasions the Church responded time and again by clipping the angels’ wings.
The tragedy of Christendom’s encounter with the Jews has no end of telling, but nearly untold is the sad tale of betrayal and distrust between the Church and its musicians. These two tragic stories conjoined at the Benedictine Abbey of Maria-Laach in 1933, where the custodians of ecclesiastical music in Germany hailed Adolf Hitler as the savior of Germany. The same churchmen who earlier had rejected the classical style music in favor of a specious version of the religious music of the Middle Ages also embraced Hitler’s sham medievalism. Europe’s musicians and Europe’s Jews perished together, for the same. Later I will return to this tale, but first it is necessary to explain why music is a burning issue for Benedict XVI and his Church.
For the new pope, sacred music does not merely put the communicant in the right mood. Music, he believes, in a sense, becomes the communion, as he told Church musicians 20 years ago:
Faith becoming music is part of the process of the word becoming flesh …When the word becomes music, there is involved on the one hand perceptible illustration, incarnation or taking on flesh, attraction of pre-rational powers, a drawing upon the hidden resonance of creation, a discovery of the song which lies at the basis of all things. And so this becoming music is itself the very turning point in the movement: it involves not only the word becoming flesh, but simultaneously the flesh becoming spirit. [1]These are the words of a mystic, of a fisher of souls. His predecessor was that too, but more inclined to catch-and-release. John Paul II bestrode the stage like a rock star, chanting to youthful crowds, “Woo-hoo-woo! John Paul II, he loves you!” He shared a stage with Bob Dylan as well as “walk on the wild side” rocker Lou Reed. Benedict XVI has radically different views. Citing the same speech:
Continue:
atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GE17Aa01.html
By Spengler
Pearls grow in oysters to soothe irritation; the high art of the West grew pearl-like in Christendom around an abrasion it could not heal: the refusal of mere humans to place all their hopes upon the promise of life after death. Christianity made Europe by offering the kingdom of heaven to barbarian invaders, while allowing them to keep their tribal culture. The high art of the West gave these rude men a presentiment of the kingdom of heaven and formed an authentic Christian culture opposed to pagan holdovers.
Pope Benedict XVI understands the power of high art as well as any man alive. At the center of his concerns are the musicians and the Jews (See last week’s Spengler, The pope, the musicians and the Jews). If the Jew converts the Christian’s inner pagan, as Franz Rosenzweig said, the musician gives him a foretaste of heaven. The beautiful, within the Catholic “theology of aesthetics”, forms the earthly visage of the unearthly good. Yet the good is not quite the same as the beautiful. High culture betrayed the interests of the Church almost upon its birth during the late 15th century, and again during the classical German period. On both occasions the Church responded time and again by clipping the angels’ wings.
The tragedy of Christendom’s encounter with the Jews has no end of telling, but nearly untold is the sad tale of betrayal and distrust between the Church and its musicians. These two tragic stories conjoined at the Benedictine Abbey of Maria-Laach in 1933, where the custodians of ecclesiastical music in Germany hailed Adolf Hitler as the savior of Germany. The same churchmen who earlier had rejected the classical style music in favor of a specious version of the religious music of the Middle Ages also embraced Hitler’s sham medievalism. Europe’s musicians and Europe’s Jews perished together, for the same. Later I will return to this tale, but first it is necessary to explain why music is a burning issue for Benedict XVI and his Church.
For the new pope, sacred music does not merely put the communicant in the right mood. Music, he believes, in a sense, becomes the communion, as he told Church musicians 20 years ago:
Faith becoming music is part of the process of the word becoming flesh …When the word becomes music, there is involved on the one hand perceptible illustration, incarnation or taking on flesh, attraction of pre-rational powers, a drawing upon the hidden resonance of creation, a discovery of the song which lies at the basis of all things. And so this becoming music is itself the very turning point in the movement: it involves not only the word becoming flesh, but simultaneously the flesh becoming spirit. [1]These are the words of a mystic, of a fisher of souls. His predecessor was that too, but more inclined to catch-and-release. John Paul II bestrode the stage like a rock star, chanting to youthful crowds, “Woo-hoo-woo! John Paul II, he loves you!” He shared a stage with Bob Dylan as well as “walk on the wild side” rocker Lou Reed. Benedict XVI has radically different views. Citing the same speech:
Continue:
atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GE17Aa01.html