The withering of the imagination to the point of poetic impotency at the hands of reason (logos) clad knowledge-seekers during the epoch of the Enlightenment left a void in its philosophical wake. But as we know from experience, human nature has a way of redressing itself by swinging the proverbial pendulum back toward what it was originally contesting. Thus, the Romantic movement was born. The emphases then were on the power of nature, and the celebration of spirited individuality with a full range of emotions (pathos).
My contention is that the effects of the Enlightenment-esque movement of rational apologetics in an increasingly aesthetically-seeking postmodern world are scorching the imaginative landscape of human experience. In its wake, the intellectual Christian establishment is witnessing a desire for something more fulfilling. May I suggest a renaissance of the neglected transcendental ideal of Beauty?
I’m not suggesting we hyperfocus on it at the expense of the other two ideals—Truth and Goodness. This would be a tragic mistake. We need Christian poets and storytellers at the same table with philosophical theologians, ethicists, and apologists to help answer the quintessential questions of life: What’s real?, What’s right?, What’s lovely?, which, in that order, address the nature of truth (logos), morality (ethos), and beauty (pathos)—all intricately interwoven.
For example, truth (in its purest form) is beautiful. And beauty is the desire to do good and know good in a perfect and personal way, not stoically but dynamically as in a relationship. And here-within lies our need for God, for God puts eternity in our hearts—an eternal pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty, which are all ultimately grounded in God himself.