A Poetics of Orthodoxy: Christian Truth as Aesthetic Foundation

by Benjamin P. Myers, Benjamin Myers

What makes one poem better than another? Do Christians have an obligation to strive for excellence in the arts? While orthodox Christians are generally quick to affirm the existence of absolute truth and absolute goodness, even many within the church fall prey to the postmodern delusion that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." This book argues that Christian doctrine in fact gives us a solid basis on which to make aesthetic judgments about poetry in particular and about the arts more generally. The faith once and for all delivered unto the saints is remarkable in its combined emphasis on embodied particularity and meaningful transcendence. This unique combination makes it the perfect starting place for art that speaks to who we are as creatures made for eternity.

Genres: Poetry, Theology, Nonfiction

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Nitoy Gonzales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gnosticism maybe a nuisance to the early church that the apostle John wrote about it on his first letter. In his letter he attributes this belief to the anti-christ. This belief distorts with it’s own “scripture” on who Jesus Christ and His incarnation. In recent years, Gnosticism got its spotlight again because of Dan Brown’s bestselling novel and movie, The DaVinci Code. Due to its impact to its readers, tons of books, articles and videos from different apologist responded to debunk what Dan Brown wrote to which can be traced to another book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Both books rely on the teachings of gnosticism.

If the original aim of gnosticism is to distort Christ, does this mean it can be wrong also in other areas of the Christian worldview? According to A Poetic of Orthodoxy, these distorted view touches even how we view arts. This heresy is not confined in the four corners of Christology but also in what we held as beautiful (including arts) that is God given.

Seems to be a far-fetched idea? Probably it might not see the connection of arts and gnosticism. However, when we further focus of this heresy we can see that it goes against natural revelation and common grace. Even more revealing is how this heresy dress itself in to fit post modernism to undermine what good poetry is.

There are two aims of the book, to show how poetry true really lives in the Christian worldview and what is a good poem. These two not just intersects beautifully with each other in the book but together they bring forth a lovely song. As the book unfolds, Myers looks at image, diction, beauty and others and point all of these makes sense when viewed and finds it’s roots on Christianity.

In the initial chapters its seems hard for me to get into the book, still its has an impressive content. Myers dissect poetry with precision that you’ll get to appreciate this art. As I have mentioned earlier, this book goes on answering Gnosticism part in distorting God’s given art and creativity to us human. If the approach might sound like an apologetic book and might turn you off, well it is not.

The part that made me enjoy this book is Chapter 5 which is about beauty and Chapter 7 on metaphors. There are parts that are fluctuating from rough to smooth in terms of reading it, nevertheless you’ll be at awe on how Myers pulls it all to present a compelling case for Christianity as indispensable grounds for true poetry.

A Poetic of Orthodoxy is short but offers lot of meaty content for the Christian poet. It’s a primer for those who are venturing to poetry and to see without the it’s Christian foundation, we wont find distinction, our aim to flourish with this art and a drive to excel in this field. It might not be a Christian poem but poetry that screams the beauty God are grounded in a Christian reality. Myers proves that indeed, aesthetics, specially poetry belongs to the Master of all arts.

My verdict:

4.5 out of 5

Check out my favorite quotes from the book here.

[John E. Norvell · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reading "A Poetics of Orthodoxy" by fellow Oklahoman Benjamin Myers, I could not help but think that this book belongs on the shelf with other great books such as L'Engle's "Walking on Water" and Peterson's "Adorning the Dark". All share a common theme of how artists can create using imaginations infused with Beauty, Goodness, and Truth.

In his Introduction, Myers nearly drained all of the ink from my yellow highligher as I marked every other line in the chapter. "The arts expand a student's concept of what it means to be a human being made in the image of God." Yes! I so agree with Myers (and others) that Beauty, Wisdom, Truth, Goodness, Virtue, Justice, Loveliness, etc. are all contained within the person of God, and the only way that we can fully and genuinely know these is to be in an authentic relationship with Him, because these things are parts of Him. And lowercase truth, goodness, beauty, ... all point us towards Him.

The chapters on Image, Beauty, Metaphor, and Mystery + Befuddlement + Hospitality were all equally inspiring in their treatment of these essentials that poets must master in craft, and that poems must excel at to be "effective".

The chapters on Diction and Sentimentality challenged me to think more deeply about my own writing and how I am moved by elevated speech in much of traditional poetry. The language of poetry needs to be "elvish" in the Tolkien sense of the word - i.e. that it is more beautiful, more successful, more intentional that ordinary common speech. This is not to say that it should be snobby or inaccessible, but that it should require more effort, more craft, and more time to produce since we need to dig deeply into what is human. These chapters and the one on Befuddlement implore that poems should be Hospitable to people. We don't want them to intentionally be obtuse just for pretentious reasons, but they should be elevated above ordinary speech (like emails and text messages) which is our the standard in contemporary times.

During the "Conclusion" chapter I imagined that if there were only one thing that the whole of humanity could collectively take with us to heaven, it should be poetry, because poetry is the record of God's faithfulness to us through the generations.

[Kevin Soriano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will be a worthy read for artists of all kinds and the general Christian readership. Through this relatively short read, Myers acquaints readers with some criteria for what it means to call things, specifically poetry, lovely and commendable—as well as a rich and rooted understanding of beauty.

If the church should embrace art and take it seriously, as has so often been claimed in recent years, it is necessary to take beauty and its defining characteristics-- those which are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable.