Thursday, September 6, 2012

Beauty Will Save the World

I've been reading a unique, inspiring and fascinating book by Brian Zahnd entitled Beauty Will Save the World: Rediscovering the Allure &  Mystery of Christianity. Wonderful book!

I've never before read a book about an apologetic of beauty. He believes that the church needs to recover the form and beauty that are intrinsic to Christianity. He finds that beauty in the story of the Cross, expressed through believers living "cruciform" lives, that is, lives marked by grace, sacrificial service and forgiveness. Zahnd begins with this thesis on page 2:
"Christianity as the ongoing expression of the Jesus story lived out in the lives of individuals and in society is a beauty that can save the world." 
Or, as C.S. Lewis put it:
"We do not merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to  bathe in it, to become part of it."
          -C.S. Lewis, The Weight & The Glory
Expect a lot of quotes from this book in the next few days.
 

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