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The Ethics of Beauty
Chaste and ardent eros for the Beautiful is the first task of human life, and falling in love with Beauty is the beginning of every adventure that matters …. In The Ethics of Beauty, Orthodox Christian theologian Timothy Patitsas first considers Beauty’s opposite, the dark events that traumatize victims of war and other ugly circumstances, and then invites us to rediscover the older Beauty-first response to moral questions and the integrity of the soul. Covering topics ranging from creation to political theory to the Jesus Prayer, including war, psychology, trauma, chastity, healthy shame, gender, marriage, hospitality, art, architecture, theology, economics, urban planning, and complexity theory, The Ethics of Beauty lays out a worldview in which Beauty, Goodness, and Truth are each embraced as indispensable elements of the best possible human life.
910 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 6, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
August 12, 2020
Patitsas' book is not only a book about beauty but is itself a beautiful thing. I would not be surprised if, a few decades from now, it is remembered as one of the most important books written in American Orthodoxy. American Orthodox literature is a young category, and American Orthodox Philosophy is even younger but I think Patitsas has placed a foundational stone that subsequent authors and thinkers can build upon.
Ostensibly, this is a book about ethics. But it takes nearly 500 pages (of 700) before the author starts dealing with ethical dilemmas. This is to the books benefit, as the first 500 pages are Patitsas setting up his ethical approach. He begins with a simple observation: our culture treats the three Transcendentals (Truth, Beauty, Goodness,) in a particular order. We are a Truth-First culture, a rationalistic culture. From Truth we devise what is Good (the right way to act or be.) Bu we neglect beauty almost entirely. It is moved into a subjective space, rather than being a transcendental reality. We become cold Rationalists. If we are not Truth-First, we are Goodness-First, drawing on moral principles to inform what we hold to be true. This results in Moralism, or religious fundamentalism. Again, Beauty is discarded almost completely.
The argument Patitsas makes is simple, both of these approaches are deeply flawed, because both ignore the unique quality of the human soul. He argues that we are primarily Beauty-First creatures, and to ignore that is to warp us in terrible ways. By Beauty, he primarily means a Theophany, a revelation of God. He makes the case that an Orthodox understanding of the world is always Beauty-First. By Beholding Beauty, we are moved towards it, and as we do that we begin to see that Beauty is Goodness. By beholding beauty, and imitating its Goodness, we begin to live Truthfully.
His book paradoxically begins by finding the opposite of Beauty, the ugliest thing he can find: trauma. But by this contrast h makes clear what Beauty is, and why it is essential. From there his arguments begin to leap: PTSD, History, Theology Architecture, City-Planning. His sources are diverse and unexpected, and in their way begin to prove his argument. His Beauty-First approach allows him to observe all of these diverse things and see the connective tissue between them in ways that I do not think a Rational or Moral approach could have.
If you are daunted by the hefty size of the book, don't be. The writing flows easily, and it is difficult to put down. Nothing about this book is dry, and you will be surprised to find how quickly the pages are falling away.
I commend this book to anyone who wants to consider a different way of looking at the world, a way grounded in the beautiful. I especially commend it to the Orthodox, and doubly to those who consider themselves theologians and philosophers. I do not wish to overstate my case, but I cannot help but think that this book will be a vital resource for American Orthodoxy, and Chrstianity as a whole.
Ostensibly, this is a book about ethics. But it takes nearly 500 pages (of 700) before the author starts dealing with ethical dilemmas. This is to the books benefit, as the first 500 pages are Patitsas setting up his ethical approach. He begins with a simple observation: our culture treats the three Transcendentals (Truth, Beauty, Goodness,) in a particular order. We are a Truth-First culture, a rationalistic culture. From Truth we devise what is Good (the right way to act or be.) Bu we neglect beauty almost entirely. It is moved into a subjective space, rather than being a transcendental reality. We become cold Rationalists. If we are not Truth-First, we are Goodness-First, drawing on moral principles to inform what we hold to be true. This results in Moralism, or religious fundamentalism. Again, Beauty is discarded almost completely.
The argument Patitsas makes is simple, both of these approaches are deeply flawed, because both ignore the unique quality of the human soul. He argues that we are primarily Beauty-First creatures, and to ignore that is to warp us in terrible ways. By Beauty, he primarily means a Theophany, a revelation of God. He makes the case that an Orthodox understanding of the world is always Beauty-First. By Beholding Beauty, we are moved towards it, and as we do that we begin to see that Beauty is Goodness. By beholding beauty, and imitating its Goodness, we begin to live Truthfully.
His book paradoxically begins by finding the opposite of Beauty, the ugliest thing he can find: trauma. But by this contrast h makes clear what Beauty is, and why it is essential. From there his arguments begin to leap: PTSD, History, Theology Architecture, City-Planning. His sources are diverse and unexpected, and in their way begin to prove his argument. His Beauty-First approach allows him to observe all of these diverse things and see the connective tissue between them in ways that I do not think a Rational or Moral approach could have.
If you are daunted by the hefty size of the book, don't be. The writing flows easily, and it is difficult to put down. Nothing about this book is dry, and you will be surprised to find how quickly the pages are falling away.
I commend this book to anyone who wants to consider a different way of looking at the world, a way grounded in the beautiful. I especially commend it to the Orthodox, and doubly to those who consider themselves theologians and philosophers. I do not wish to overstate my case, but I cannot help but think that this book will be a vital resource for American Orthodoxy, and Chrstianity as a whole.
June 25, 2024
In many ways I am the wrong person to review this undeniably impressive and magisterial book. I am a confessional Lutheran who flat-out disagrees with a great deal of how the Eastern Orthodox approach theology. To outline my basic critiques of this book would be the same as outlining my basic critiques of Eastern Orthodoxy in general, which I have no intention of doing here. That said, I have taken a great deal of inspiration from the East in many ways, and I think they have many valuable things to teach the Church Universal. I did not read this entire tome, but I tried to give it enough attention for an honest evaluation. There is much here that is amazingly brilliant and provocative. Patitsas' analyses of Greek literature in light of Biblical truth is a series of great revelations. Much of his discussion of gender and sexuality is incredibly helpful. His understanding of Biblical archetypes and allegories is often highly illuminating.
But I don't think the book needs to be nearly so long. It's a major prohibitive factor that will likely prevent it from achieving the popularity that it probably deserves. Sometimes it seemed more like Patitsas was trying to write a systematic dogmatics rather than an ethics. His project is most successful when it is focused on ethics and not various sidetracks into rather unduly specific and obscure EO theological topics of various importance. I have a tough time envisioning non-EO readers being wholly won over by his arguments because he often has a holier-than-thou tone. Ultimately I think that Patitsas misunderstands the classical Western transcendental categories and theological/philosophical traditions, along with both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism (he makes the classic "trad Catholic" error of equating the early magisterial Reformers with watered-down evangelicalism). But he has forced me to think through the unique approach and assumptions of my own theological tradition and to acknowledge areas where I can learn and grow from the East. I think that's an important thing for all believers to do every once in a while. He's also made me think about how EO often uses really attractive-sounding mystical ideas and terms that nonetheless exclude alternatives that are more doctrinally or philosophically sound (i.e. "beauty first"). In summary, this is a book you should probably try to track down if you're at all interested in taking a deep dive into the East. If you just want an introductory text, read Schmemann's For the Life of the World. And if you want a more traditional book on Christian ethics, well...this is definitely not it.
But I don't think the book needs to be nearly so long. It's a major prohibitive factor that will likely prevent it from achieving the popularity that it probably deserves. Sometimes it seemed more like Patitsas was trying to write a systematic dogmatics rather than an ethics. His project is most successful when it is focused on ethics and not various sidetracks into rather unduly specific and obscure EO theological topics of various importance. I have a tough time envisioning non-EO readers being wholly won over by his arguments because he often has a holier-than-thou tone. Ultimately I think that Patitsas misunderstands the classical Western transcendental categories and theological/philosophical traditions, along with both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism (he makes the classic "trad Catholic" error of equating the early magisterial Reformers with watered-down evangelicalism). But he has forced me to think through the unique approach and assumptions of my own theological tradition and to acknowledge areas where I can learn and grow from the East. I think that's an important thing for all believers to do every once in a while. He's also made me think about how EO often uses really attractive-sounding mystical ideas and terms that nonetheless exclude alternatives that are more doctrinally or philosophically sound (i.e. "beauty first"). In summary, this is a book you should probably try to track down if you're at all interested in taking a deep dive into the East. If you just want an introductory text, read Schmemann's For the Life of the World. And if you want a more traditional book on Christian ethics, well...this is definitely not it.
November 21, 2020
I cannot give this book the review it deserves without writing a book myself. I think the test of time will prove this to be one of the most important Orthodox books written in recent decades. This is not written as an academic study, but rather a series of lengthy (very) interviews between Dr. Patitsas and an Orthodox Nun (editor of the Road to Emmaus journal) in which he dives deeply into the development of his thought and conclusions.
This is valuable for those suffering from trauma - examining why psychoanalysis can only take us so far, to how a focus on Beauty (Christ and his incarnation) must be the starting point on the path to living truth and goodness. As others have mentioned, this book places this in context in a broad range of topics - from PTSD to the building of cities and everything in between. Very worth the time to carefully read and ponder.
This is valuable for those suffering from trauma - examining why psychoanalysis can only take us so far, to how a focus on Beauty (Christ and his incarnation) must be the starting point on the path to living truth and goodness. As others have mentioned, this book places this in context in a broad range of topics - from PTSD to the building of cities and everything in between. Very worth the time to carefully read and ponder.
January 12, 2025
The length is an issue — a more traditionally structured (and edited) approach would have made for a more enjoyable read, and I found myself meandering through some chapters more than others.
That said, I hope this would be the kind of book they find to kick off the Renaissance of 2,500.
That said, I hope this would be the kind of book they find to kick off the Renaissance of 2,500.
November 22, 2021
This is a disorganized mess of ideas, some of which are interesting. It should have been three or four books instead of one. The interview format was frustrating for me. The author opines on a myriad of subjects from philosophy of science to city planning, to stock market investing. I felt a little overwhelmed by it all and wasn't convinced by all the connections made to Christian theology. I was inspired by the main idea of "beauty first" but was ultimately put off by the format and style of the book.
May 25, 2021
An unbelievably wonderful book. In it Dr Patitsas looks at ethics from the standpoint of beauty, diving into many diverse topics such as PTSD, architecture, economics, marriage, social justice, biology, and much more. An easy read, but don’t let that fool you; there is much wisdom to be found in this book. It has changed my views on the Incarnation, the necessity of beauty and tension, and what healing can look like.
May 9, 2024
Contemporary ethics investigates morality to the purpose of purporting what is True and Good; yet, “In discarding beauty, Ethics itself risks becoming not only unlovely but also an affront to loveliness.” It is Beauty first, not Truth-first, that transforms a soul. Years ago, I’d agree with the distinctly American evangelical world that would say otherwise (i.e, first and foremost think rightly!), but “theology of the church did not begin with considerations of intellectual method nor with concerns about the wider relevance or usefulness of the Gospel message.” It began with Beauty, prompting Goodness, revealing Truth. Jesus taught in parables, not catechisms.
Ostensibly about ethics, Patitsas’ book abstracts Christian classicism’s greatest hits—the transcendentals, the tripartite soul, chiastic structure, etc.—to comment on, in his own words, “an entire galaxy of subjects and themes.” Therapy, gender, architecture, trauma... Some work; some lost me (I glazed over a few chapters); some, although curious, veered into a realm of conservatism I’ve long left behind (e.g., men and women as reflections of Israel’s offices—men ought to be ‘king,’ women ‘priest’).
I’m particularly envious, though, of the ease with which the Orthodox method treats all as symbol. Neoplatonism emerges early: the world is an icon, all 'B' Beauty a theophany in (sometimes) dark relief, oriented toward the heavenly realm of real. If not an icon, the world could not be Beautiful nor Good, only empty and arbitrary. Contemplating Beauty prompts Good; “the more symbolic we become…the more real we become, the more ourselves we become.” This is Patitsas’ vision of the Christian faith, and one I can get behind.
Ostensibly about ethics, Patitsas’ book abstracts Christian classicism’s greatest hits—the transcendentals, the tripartite soul, chiastic structure, etc.—to comment on, in his own words, “an entire galaxy of subjects and themes.” Therapy, gender, architecture, trauma... Some work; some lost me (I glazed over a few chapters); some, although curious, veered into a realm of conservatism I’ve long left behind (e.g., men and women as reflections of Israel’s offices—men ought to be ‘king,’ women ‘priest’).
I’m particularly envious, though, of the ease with which the Orthodox method treats all as symbol. Neoplatonism emerges early: the world is an icon, all 'B' Beauty a theophany in (sometimes) dark relief, oriented toward the heavenly realm of real. If not an icon, the world could not be Beautiful nor Good, only empty and arbitrary. Contemplating Beauty prompts Good; “the more symbolic we become…the more real we become, the more ourselves we become.” This is Patitsas’ vision of the Christian faith, and one I can get behind.
November 20, 2024
I’m giving this tome 5 stars because of what it has produced in me. Greater compassion. Deeper appreciation for Beauty. Healthier approach to Truth. Broader knowledge of the world around me. More amazement at how God is Beauty and calls us Beautiful.
I love that this work has introduced me to so many other notable works/ disciplines/ movers and shakers. I did often feel like I needed to read other scholarly books to fully appreciate Dr. Patistas discussions. That was a little overwhelming but even just looking up a brief review of those works or a YouTube video (especially helpful for discussion on Christopher Alexander) often gave me enough information to follow the flow of thought.
I will say that many parts of the book did feel like a sales pitch for Greek Orthodoxy. A few times it seemed that his argument rested solely on first believing Greek Orthodoxy or his example was solely backed by Greek Orthodox leaving me to fill in the gap with an example more available to me personally. There were definitely sections that I had to remind myself to stop arguing with him and just understand his point. More often than not, even in those sections, I found a common ground or appreciation.
There are a number of books that I believe merit a certificate of completion, college credit or even a badge or sticker. This is one of them! At the end I felt like I hadn’t just “read a book” but had taken a journey.
I love that this work has introduced me to so many other notable works/ disciplines/ movers and shakers. I did often feel like I needed to read other scholarly books to fully appreciate Dr. Patistas discussions. That was a little overwhelming but even just looking up a brief review of those works or a YouTube video (especially helpful for discussion on Christopher Alexander) often gave me enough information to follow the flow of thought.
I will say that many parts of the book did feel like a sales pitch for Greek Orthodoxy. A few times it seemed that his argument rested solely on first believing Greek Orthodoxy or his example was solely backed by Greek Orthodox leaving me to fill in the gap with an example more available to me personally. There were definitely sections that I had to remind myself to stop arguing with him and just understand his point. More often than not, even in those sections, I found a common ground or appreciation.
There are a number of books that I believe merit a certificate of completion, college credit or even a badge or sticker. This is one of them! At the end I felt like I hadn’t just “read a book” but had taken a journey.
June 12, 2021
I wish I could give more than 5 stars to this book. Dr. Patitsas expresses deep and profound truths in such a beautiful way. He provides such a vision of Beauty that the reader is encouraged to live out the Goodness of the Truth he reveals.
March 22, 2024
This book has been my morning companion for the last 14 months. It would take that long to try and explain all of the Beauty, Truth, and Goodness that I gleaned from these pages. Take your time and have a pencil handy.
October 22, 2020
I learned a lot from this book; how trauma victims can be helped (not psychoanalysis); how beauty (chaste desire, love), principally by beholding Christ and His ultimate self-sacrifice on the cross, leads to living truth. But not only in regard to religious matters, but in regard to science, cities, families, sexuality, among other concerns. The book addresses the matter much more deeply, but thankfully in an interview format without much academic jargon. He lost me in a few places. He interprets various scholars that he sees having key insights in relation to the beauty - goodness
-truth progression in people as well as in everything which involves complex patterns.
-truth progression in people as well as in everything which involves complex patterns.
Want to read
May 1, 2023I do want to finish this! Wish I had someone to discuss it with…
November 21, 2024
What a journey this book was. I don't know if I would have finished it without the help of a group of friends. This book is life altering and deep. Written on a scholarly level, Dr. Patitsas discusses the power of a beauty first approach to the world. Everything from how to heal PTSD in soliders with beauty to reorienting our understanding of shame, to the beautiful role of men and women living out their masculinity and feminity in the fullness of God. I also was introduced to the Eastern Orthodox view of Christianity, which, while clinging to many ancient unbiblical traditions, I have a new respect for its teaching on beauty, liturgy, and service. I will ponder this book for a long time and may never be the same after it, in a really good way.
October 15, 2025
Finally finished this encompassing tome…only took 10 months, but worth it.
I have read 3 nonfiction books recently that all seem to speak to each other. One concentrated on fiction (my favorite), one concentrated on the coming destruction of the world from technology, and this one concentrated on almost everything else under the sun. I will be thinking about their similarities and differences for a long while.
I am convinced there is much in Dr Patitsas’s beauty-first approach to the world. You hear a lot about truth, beauty and goodness as the marks we all should aim for, and I have read that they are basically synonymous but it turns out they are not, at all. Beauty first, says Dr Tim. Read the book.
I have read 3 nonfiction books recently that all seem to speak to each other. One concentrated on fiction (my favorite), one concentrated on the coming destruction of the world from technology, and this one concentrated on almost everything else under the sun. I will be thinking about their similarities and differences for a long while.
I am convinced there is much in Dr Patitsas’s beauty-first approach to the world. You hear a lot about truth, beauty and goodness as the marks we all should aim for, and I have read that they are basically synonymous but it turns out they are not, at all. Beauty first, says Dr Tim. Read the book.
April 4, 2025
Triadic Summaries:
Greek Mind Intellect
Jewish Heart Personalism
Roman Body Law & Politics 7
Beauty aesthetics
Goodness ethics and morality
Truth 31
Beauty chastity theophany (97) beauty is Christ and his self-emptying love hospitality(407) ascetism(407)
Goodness morality empathy praxis goodness of the cross; pour ourselves out
for others
Truth humility dogma union with the truth; we become our dogma 76
Beauty Purification eros for beauty
Goodness Illumination agape for practicing goodness
Truth Deification 98 philia
Chaste, yet ardent eros “unknowing” - pious shame - chaste devotion to the Trinity chaste and ardent eros are “faith”(408) - motherhood(409)
Courageous doing of good, long-suffering agape - die that others may survive
Glory - coincidence to the max of eros and agape 310-313
Chaste eros - feminine shame - priestly expression of the prophetic office
Courageous agape - masculine shame - priestly expression of kingly office
Noble glory - reconciliation of eros/agape feminine/masculine 319-320
Marriage:
Joins sexual attraction - eros
To practicality - goodness or agape
To permanent friendship - philia 335
Ethics is based on a triplet:
Who we think the person is: anthropology
What the goal of human life is: teleology
The method we use for moral determinations: epistemology 369
Anthropological triplet - our emphasis determines the tone of our moral theology:
Nature
Will
Person (Orthodoxy starts here) 375
***
Chapter One: The Opposite of War is not Peace: Healing Trauma in the Iliad and in Orthodox Tradition 1-44
All these will be saved; only I shall be lost. St Silouan 24
All these will be saved - Luke 23:34 - father forgive them for they know not what they’re doing
Only I shall be lost - Mark 15:34 - my god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me 321
Chapter Two: A Feeling for Beauty: The Aesthetic Ground of Orthodox Ethics 45-100
If you have a good thought, you must do it at once. Sotiris of Korea 52
Eros “love’s mad self-forgetting” the love that makes us renounce ourselves 55
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, the sinner. 61
We exist in God’s mercy and love
We do bad things
We identify with Christ on the cross (he became sin) 62-63
Christ’s virginal life concupiscent passions addiction (paralysis) fasting
Christ’s temptation to power, wrath of kings and death sentence irascible passions
Trauma (paralysis) alms or reconciliation with enemies
Christ humbled in the grave passion of pride prayer to humbly receive God’s glory
69-70
Creation of the World:
Creation results from God’s self-emptying over the face of non-being. God appears, He shines out, as Beauty. This Beauty is so compelling that not even non-being can resist falling in love with it. Overcome with eros, non-being renounces itself, repents of its chaos and self-absorption, and arises into being. As it does so, it “learns” to behave as the One it loves behaves - full of self-emptying Goodness for everything around it. Thus, everything that exists is marked by a cruciform love - for God, as eros, and for all creation, as agape. 78
Paralysis: with healing time begins to flow again. 82-83
The purpose of the monk is to keep the mind in the heart, focused on Jesus’ name. 70
Tho greatest commandments:
Love for god eros
Love for creation agape
No one ever became holy by fighting evil. We only become holy by falling in love with Christ. Elder Porphrios 78
Summary of trauma healing on p.79.
Truth in the sense of genuineness. Genuineness is the real meat of truth. Truth about things, and about people and ourselves, can foster [a] … killing isolation…. 82
Many revel in inducing trauma in their audience or referencing the absolute vantage point of their trauma experience [e.g. f-bombs] 88
Golgotha crucifixions:
Christ - undeserved, but willing
Bad Thief - deserved, but unwilling
Good Thief - deserved, begins unwilling, but seeing Christ comes to accept it 91
Berserk style in art and politics 88,93
Chapter Three: Chastity and Empathy: Eros, Agape, and the Mystery of the Twofold Annointing 101-182
Anointed: becomes both a king and a sacrificial offering; the two states are inseparable 153
Fasting and feasting seem separate to us in our fallen state, but they form a single twofold response to the Beautiful. 155
Fasting is how we purify eros, while feasting is how we intensify it. 161
Fasting and asceticism are about the Beautiful, … use them to fall more deeply in love with Christ and not to fall more deeply with your own moral excellence. 162
Best expression of the trinity: the Spirit proceeds from the Father in order to rest upon the Son. 155
An anointing that confers both a cross and a resurrection 157
Bright sadness -or- Cross-Resurrection Ethos 157
Two simple rules for evaluating what appears to be beautiful: Is the Cross of Christ within it? Is it possible to love it chastely? 158
When we focus on the evils of sexual immorality instead of first supporting the movement towards Christian marriage and family, or towards monasticism; really, towards Christ. Our message becomes nihilistic. “Don’t” is all we have to offer. 162
The state of salvation is to liturgies, i.e., to practice an eros of self-offering to God that alone has the potential to unfold into the right agape/service to our fellow man and the creation. As we are saved, our lives become liturgy. 164
Our culture … is so madly pursuing power, that it can’t be so easily shamed. 167
Our main focus ought to be outside ourselves, on Christ, … or on the chaste beauty of the Church services. …This all-consuming eros for Christ and Holy Trinity is … Chastity. … Out of the first of the two greatest commandments flows the second, “to love your neighbor as yourself.” Agape should always be anchored in Chastity. 169
The famous Elder Aimilianos experienced a vision in which he saw that all created things - rocks and trees and animals - are in fact continually reciting the Jesus Prayer by reason of their very existence. 170
The world is beautiful because it really is an icon of heavenly life 171
Chapter Four: Shame and Sacrifice: Rescuing the Soul from the Empire of Therapy 183-296
[Healthy shame] let us acknowledge that we are created, we are dependent, we are weak. We cannot live except through an endless outpouring of divine mercy upon our troubled selves. 251
Jane Jacobs: you couldn’t “fight blight” in a ghetto as if it were some sort of physical enemy. No, our first priority in all such cases must be to feed the good, to strengthen what is positive in the house (purified air), in the soul (eros for Christ and healthy shame, generally), and in the city (the elements of complex urban order that are working well), and then to let the power generated by these dynamic forces ward off all harmful influences. 292
Chapter Five: Only Priests can Marry: The Reconciliation of Men and Women in Christ 297-404
Mystical experiences - “neither accept nor reject” 299
This chiasm within grief, wherein the dead one seems truly alive while the living one experiences being “dead,” is the sign of love and is even a confession of the Resurrection in their death, our loved ones become more alive (we feel) than ever. 304
Without pious shame the bravery displayed … may become captive to cruel and sacreligious powers 312
Parable of Unwise Virgins: “who lack the oil of Agape even though they are dedicated to the bridegroom” 313
A fractal:
Marriage in the soul
Marriage between men and women
Marriage between king (rulers) and city (people) 319-320
Priesthood more a modality according to which the other two offices might be fulfilled:
Priestly king is self-sacrificing; non-priestly king is a tyrant and a thief.
Priestly prophet knows persons; non-priestly prophet is a fortune-teller witch scientist who uses reductive methods to the harm of living organisms 321
Men (kingship) go through Christ and his crucifixion (strong, kind, and just) to be the ultimate prophet (John the Baptist);
Women (prophecy) go through Christ and his crucifixion (strong, kind, and just) to be the ultimate general and protector (Mary).
The sexes come to rest as symbol of our partner’s calling. 342
Women, who are not called to shed blood, even in a mystical way. 345
Catholics say: Nature triumphs over will. [natural law; nature and tradition] Truth first. This reduces God to their nature.
Protestants say: Will triumphs over nature. [God’s Word is God’s will; Bible above reason and tradition] Goodness first. This reduces God to His Will and His Power. 371-372
The coincidence of pure faith and loving works that we call “liturgy” 373
Like our involuntary “will to survive,” than a faculty of choice. Even plants and rocks have “wills” in that sense of involuntary patterns of action - we call a rock’s will its energy, or activity; plants and rocks do the things that plants and rocks do. 377
The gap between God and man is overcome by the interpretation of God’s uncreated energies with human nature. Their union occurred in Christ and was then made available to us … through the sacraments of the church. 381
Overcoming the split between faith and works with a Christology and a sequence:
Christology:
Once man consents to the visitation of the incarnate Christ, then both his nature and his will begin to be transformed, head, and most crucially, man is able to see his personal willing for God as both a free act and as an act that is wholly from God.
Sequence:
Personal consent (faith or eros)
Followed by natural transfiguration (holy baptism)
And willing self-sacrifice (works of faith) 381
Western movement against Nature and Will to reposition the person at the center of faith:
Bonhoeffer - Lutheran
Pope John Paul II - Catholic
Martin Buber - Jewish
Existentialism - Philosophy
Karl Barth - Biblical Scholarship 383
St. Maximos the Confessor: The Ambigua #65
Being- Common Knowledge (Nature)
Well-Being - Choice (Freedom and Will)
Ever-Being - eternal friendship with Christ (enfolding Nature and Will)
Nature => Will => Person 383-84
Spiritual guidance should be focused on Christ, treating your soul like a tender plant and help it to unfold and grow … [in] the light and warmth of the divine son. 399
[If I’m not focused on Christ] then I’m focused on a struggle for virtue that is mostly my own preening vanity, or on a struggle for self-knowledge that is mostly an escape from knowing God and knowing others. 399
Chapter Six: The Mystical Architect: the Conception of the Crucified Logos in Art, Science, and Nature 405-517
Faith and works are only real - and are only combined - when we show hospitality to the will of God. 408
The two great commandments … show perfect hospitality to God and to others. 414
The serving tray is the foundation of human civilization 415
Hospitality unifies faith and works, trust and offering, and it is a liturgical act. 415
Patterns are like rituals, whether in time or in space. What we are talking about in The Timeless Way is the difference between good rituals and bad rituals. 427
The good patterns, whether of design or of action, are usually the key to this Quality Without a Name. 430
My best witnesses for Orthodox Christianity are the people who���ve never much heard of it - Grossman and Shay on war; Christopher Alexander on beauty; C.S. Lewis on cosmology and gender. 432
ETHC 6345 The Ethics of Beauty What is an ethical approach to art and beauty? Why does some beauty save and heal, while other beauty wounds or even kills? Must one be holy to produce a work of beauty, or is it only in attempting to create something beautiful that we acquire human wholeness? Relevant authors will include Fotios Kontoglou, Christopher Alexander, Michael J. Lewis, and others. : We read Alexander’s The Timeless Way against the treatment of St. Dionysios the Areopagite, in Eric Perl’s Theophany, against the thought of St. Maximos the Confessor, against the life and words of St. Elder Porphyrios in Wounded by Love. With this combination you get the theology, the philosophy, the sanctity, and the practical application all at once. They explain each other, and each one safeguards us from the pitfalls we mere mortals tend to fall into when reading any of them in isolation. 433
St Maximos … uses the term logos, with a small ‘l,” for each thing’s specific and particular share of the self-offering of the Logos. … the identity of each thing that exists is a dimension or facet of the “big L” Logos, Christ himself. … each bit of creation will see in Christ’s limitless self-offering to the world, a Beautiful “personalized invitation” rather than an overwhelming imposition. 438
Christ … He therefore shows how we become human, which is by starting with some particular set of limitations and then transcending these in the life of spiritual adventure. 440
In Beauty we love Christ and him crucified, while in Goodness we consent to be crucified with him for the life of the world. 441
When married couples entrust their lives to each other, what they are doing is trading an infinity of possibilities for the possibility of infinity. Their being born to each other requires that they “die” to all other possible spouses. 447
Icons are creation doing what creation does best - “capturing” the invisible God in a mystical reflection. 459
Like the gospel message itself, they summon, not crush. 459
The truth-first approach … belongs properly to Christ. He is the Logos, the Truth, who consents to the Goodness of self-emptying, and thus shines out radiantly as Beauty. 461
They present the gospel, or … [its] moral teaching … as if they were weapons…. It would be better if, in a Beauty-first way, they were to allow the gospel and its chaste life to attract those who are tired of living under the sentence of death …. 477
Spiritual guides … do not give you a truth-first final picture of yourself but rather a Beauty-first final picture of your goal – Christ the Resurrected One, triumphant over death. 488-489
Andrei Rublev’s icon, “The Hospitality of Abraham” …. In Orthodoxy, this Rublev icon is deservedly regarded as the icon of the Holy Trinity. 489
Both monastic mysticism and marriage are constituted by hospitality. 490
Hospitality combines eros and agape. It is a reaching out to otherness (an eros) that is simultaneously a taking in, a reception, a co-suffering empathy (an agape). 491
The traditions have been broken, or at least marginalized, many times in history, and almost as many times they have been pieced back together and recovered. 506
Wendell Berry … convinces us that land that is taken care of properly can become a garden, a paradise, and a work of art. 508
It is the farm community that Berry cherishes, as much as the farmer. 512
We are not meant to return to the Garden, and according to [Jane] Jacobs, farming turns out to be city work transplanted into the countryside. 514
Chapter Seven: Beauty Will Save the World: Social Justice, Judgment Day, and the Human Need to Forgive God 517-622
We repent … because heaven has come upon us. 520
Helping is not enough. We have to see in the poor, and at times also in ourselves when we are poor, a theophany: Christ crucified but victorious. This is Beauty-first. And we have to consent to be co-crucified with the poor and as the poor for the sake of Christ. This is the Almsgiving, or Empathy, or Goodness that unfolds from Beauty. 536
The problems down here are so complex that many times the most rational course is prayer rather than any particular social action. 541-542
All in all, I count eight beautiful ways that we react with perfect love to the presence of Christ in the crucified poor. These ways are: the services of the Church; noetic prayer; monastic charity, motherhood, mission work; social or philanthropic work; all the hospitalities of marriage; and our vocations in the world. 545
In Christ all life becomes both a doxology and a theophany. We see God enthroned everywhere, in every creature, leaf and blade of grass, and yet understand that somehow in his humility He also asks for our kind welcome and care. And so we praise God by conveying the mercy we receive from him to all of the creation around us. 549
You can’t square the circle of promoting both responsibility and compassion, except through love and uncreated grace. 564
Righteous anger is necessary and appropriate, but somehow these days what we get is its opposite - self-righteous anger. 569
Just try and do what is right with as much love and patience as you can muster. 570
For a Christian not to centralize love and mystery in discussions of social order would be madness. 572
Of the three types of social justice - the individual “just desserts” approach (justice); the social “structural inequality approach (mercy); and the Church’s way, wherein we wash another person’s feet (love) - we in the Church should put most of our emphasis on the third way, on the way that cherishes the image of Christ in the person. 580
More rational to see that society is complex, and that it will only work if we all try to love each other, than to imagine that you could program people and policy like a machine. 587
The appearing of the Cross - in the world reveals not one but two vulnerable groups: those rich who neglect Lazarus, and Lazarus himself, the poor man at the gate 591
Helping the poor is this prophetic act by which we unknow the outward difference between ourselves and the one suffering 592
Because we now conduct the social wedding liturgy as if it were a divorce proceeding, many people have grown disgusted with politics altogether; they are checking out of the liturgy, out of civil society. 594
Chapter Eight: The City as Liturgy: How Jane Jacobs Used the Beautiful Science of Complexity to Explain Cities, and Unknowingly Reconciled Science and Religion 623-724
The obvious answer would have been to remove the barriers to home loans and self-employent in the slums, and then let the people take care of themselves. 640
Jane Jacobs’ research tactics for organic, living systems:
Reason inductively rather than deductively 664
Pay attention to the processes even more t
Greek Mind Intellect
Jewish Heart Personalism
Roman Body Law & Politics 7
Beauty aesthetics
Goodness ethics and morality
Truth 31
Beauty chastity theophany (97) beauty is Christ and his self-emptying love hospitality(407) ascetism(407)
Goodness morality empathy praxis goodness of the cross; pour ourselves out
for others
Truth humility dogma union with the truth; we become our dogma 76
Beauty Purification eros for beauty
Goodness Illumination agape for practicing goodness
Truth Deification 98 philia
Chaste, yet ardent eros “unknowing” - pious shame - chaste devotion to the Trinity chaste and ardent eros are “faith”(408) - motherhood(409)
Courageous doing of good, long-suffering agape - die that others may survive
Glory - coincidence to the max of eros and agape 310-313
Chaste eros - feminine shame - priestly expression of the prophetic office
Courageous agape - masculine shame - priestly expression of kingly office
Noble glory - reconciliation of eros/agape feminine/masculine 319-320
Marriage:
Joins sexual attraction - eros
To practicality - goodness or agape
To permanent friendship - philia 335
Ethics is based on a triplet:
Who we think the person is: anthropology
What the goal of human life is: teleology
The method we use for moral determinations: epistemology 369
Anthropological triplet - our emphasis determines the tone of our moral theology:
Nature
Will
Person (Orthodoxy starts here) 375
***
Chapter One: The Opposite of War is not Peace: Healing Trauma in the Iliad and in Orthodox Tradition 1-44
All these will be saved; only I shall be lost. St Silouan 24
All these will be saved - Luke 23:34 - father forgive them for they know not what they’re doing
Only I shall be lost - Mark 15:34 - my god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me 321
Chapter Two: A Feeling for Beauty: The Aesthetic Ground of Orthodox Ethics 45-100
If you have a good thought, you must do it at once. Sotiris of Korea 52
Eros “love’s mad self-forgetting” the love that makes us renounce ourselves 55
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, the sinner. 61
We exist in God’s mercy and love
We do bad things
We identify with Christ on the cross (he became sin) 62-63
Christ’s virginal life concupiscent passions addiction (paralysis) fasting
Christ’s temptation to power, wrath of kings and death sentence irascible passions
Trauma (paralysis) alms or reconciliation with enemies
Christ humbled in the grave passion of pride prayer to humbly receive God’s glory
69-70
Creation of the World:
Creation results from God’s self-emptying over the face of non-being. God appears, He shines out, as Beauty. This Beauty is so compelling that not even non-being can resist falling in love with it. Overcome with eros, non-being renounces itself, repents of its chaos and self-absorption, and arises into being. As it does so, it “learns” to behave as the One it loves behaves - full of self-emptying Goodness for everything around it. Thus, everything that exists is marked by a cruciform love - for God, as eros, and for all creation, as agape. 78
Paralysis: with healing time begins to flow again. 82-83
The purpose of the monk is to keep the mind in the heart, focused on Jesus’ name. 70
Tho greatest commandments:
Love for god eros
Love for creation agape
No one ever became holy by fighting evil. We only become holy by falling in love with Christ. Elder Porphrios 78
Summary of trauma healing on p.79.
Truth in the sense of genuineness. Genuineness is the real meat of truth. Truth about things, and about people and ourselves, can foster [a] … killing isolation…. 82
Many revel in inducing trauma in their audience or referencing the absolute vantage point of their trauma experience [e.g. f-bombs] 88
Golgotha crucifixions:
Christ - undeserved, but willing
Bad Thief - deserved, but unwilling
Good Thief - deserved, begins unwilling, but seeing Christ comes to accept it 91
Berserk style in art and politics 88,93
Chapter Three: Chastity and Empathy: Eros, Agape, and the Mystery of the Twofold Annointing 101-182
Anointed: becomes both a king and a sacrificial offering; the two states are inseparable 153
Fasting and feasting seem separate to us in our fallen state, but they form a single twofold response to the Beautiful. 155
Fasting is how we purify eros, while feasting is how we intensify it. 161
Fasting and asceticism are about the Beautiful, … use them to fall more deeply in love with Christ and not to fall more deeply with your own moral excellence. 162
Best expression of the trinity: the Spirit proceeds from the Father in order to rest upon the Son. 155
An anointing that confers both a cross and a resurrection 157
Bright sadness -or- Cross-Resurrection Ethos 157
Two simple rules for evaluating what appears to be beautiful: Is the Cross of Christ within it? Is it possible to love it chastely? 158
When we focus on the evils of sexual immorality instead of first supporting the movement towards Christian marriage and family, or towards monasticism; really, towards Christ. Our message becomes nihilistic. “Don’t” is all we have to offer. 162
The state of salvation is to liturgies, i.e., to practice an eros of self-offering to God that alone has the potential to unfold into the right agape/service to our fellow man and the creation. As we are saved, our lives become liturgy. 164
Our culture … is so madly pursuing power, that it can’t be so easily shamed. 167
Our main focus ought to be outside ourselves, on Christ, … or on the chaste beauty of the Church services. …This all-consuming eros for Christ and Holy Trinity is … Chastity. … Out of the first of the two greatest commandments flows the second, “to love your neighbor as yourself.” Agape should always be anchored in Chastity. 169
The famous Elder Aimilianos experienced a vision in which he saw that all created things - rocks and trees and animals - are in fact continually reciting the Jesus Prayer by reason of their very existence. 170
The world is beautiful because it really is an icon of heavenly life 171
Chapter Four: Shame and Sacrifice: Rescuing the Soul from the Empire of Therapy 183-296
[Healthy shame] let us acknowledge that we are created, we are dependent, we are weak. We cannot live except through an endless outpouring of divine mercy upon our troubled selves. 251
Jane Jacobs: you couldn’t “fight blight” in a ghetto as if it were some sort of physical enemy. No, our first priority in all such cases must be to feed the good, to strengthen what is positive in the house (purified air), in the soul (eros for Christ and healthy shame, generally), and in the city (the elements of complex urban order that are working well), and then to let the power generated by these dynamic forces ward off all harmful influences. 292
Chapter Five: Only Priests can Marry: The Reconciliation of Men and Women in Christ 297-404
Mystical experiences - “neither accept nor reject” 299
This chiasm within grief, wherein the dead one seems truly alive while the living one experiences being “dead,” is the sign of love and is even a confession of the Resurrection in their death, our loved ones become more alive (we feel) than ever. 304
Without pious shame the bravery displayed … may become captive to cruel and sacreligious powers 312
Parable of Unwise Virgins: “who lack the oil of Agape even though they are dedicated to the bridegroom” 313
A fractal:
Marriage in the soul
Marriage between men and women
Marriage between king (rulers) and city (people) 319-320
Priesthood more a modality according to which the other two offices might be fulfilled:
Priestly king is self-sacrificing; non-priestly king is a tyrant and a thief.
Priestly prophet knows persons; non-priestly prophet is a fortune-teller witch scientist who uses reductive methods to the harm of living organisms 321
Men (kingship) go through Christ and his crucifixion (strong, kind, and just) to be the ultimate prophet (John the Baptist);
Women (prophecy) go through Christ and his crucifixion (strong, kind, and just) to be the ultimate general and protector (Mary).
The sexes come to rest as symbol of our partner’s calling. 342
Women, who are not called to shed blood, even in a mystical way. 345
Catholics say: Nature triumphs over will. [natural law; nature and tradition] Truth first. This reduces God to their nature.
Protestants say: Will triumphs over nature. [God’s Word is God’s will; Bible above reason and tradition] Goodness first. This reduces God to His Will and His Power. 371-372
The coincidence of pure faith and loving works that we call “liturgy” 373
Like our involuntary “will to survive,” than a faculty of choice. Even plants and rocks have “wills” in that sense of involuntary patterns of action - we call a rock’s will its energy, or activity; plants and rocks do the things that plants and rocks do. 377
The gap between God and man is overcome by the interpretation of God’s uncreated energies with human nature. Their union occurred in Christ and was then made available to us … through the sacraments of the church. 381
Overcoming the split between faith and works with a Christology and a sequence:
Christology:
Once man consents to the visitation of the incarnate Christ, then both his nature and his will begin to be transformed, head, and most crucially, man is able to see his personal willing for God as both a free act and as an act that is wholly from God.
Sequence:
Personal consent (faith or eros)
Followed by natural transfiguration (holy baptism)
And willing self-sacrifice (works of faith) 381
Western movement against Nature and Will to reposition the person at the center of faith:
Bonhoeffer - Lutheran
Pope John Paul II - Catholic
Martin Buber - Jewish
Existentialism - Philosophy
Karl Barth - Biblical Scholarship 383
St. Maximos the Confessor: The Ambigua #65
Being- Common Knowledge (Nature)
Well-Being - Choice (Freedom and Will)
Ever-Being - eternal friendship with Christ (enfolding Nature and Will)
Nature => Will => Person 383-84
Spiritual guidance should be focused on Christ, treating your soul like a tender plant and help it to unfold and grow … [in] the light and warmth of the divine son. 399
[If I’m not focused on Christ] then I’m focused on a struggle for virtue that is mostly my own preening vanity, or on a struggle for self-knowledge that is mostly an escape from knowing God and knowing others. 399
Chapter Six: The Mystical Architect: the Conception of the Crucified Logos in Art, Science, and Nature 405-517
Faith and works are only real - and are only combined - when we show hospitality to the will of God. 408
The two great commandments … show perfect hospitality to God and to others. 414
The serving tray is the foundation of human civilization 415
Hospitality unifies faith and works, trust and offering, and it is a liturgical act. 415
Patterns are like rituals, whether in time or in space. What we are talking about in The Timeless Way is the difference between good rituals and bad rituals. 427
The good patterns, whether of design or of action, are usually the key to this Quality Without a Name. 430
My best witnesses for Orthodox Christianity are the people who���ve never much heard of it - Grossman and Shay on war; Christopher Alexander on beauty; C.S. Lewis on cosmology and gender. 432
ETHC 6345 The Ethics of Beauty What is an ethical approach to art and beauty? Why does some beauty save and heal, while other beauty wounds or even kills? Must one be holy to produce a work of beauty, or is it only in attempting to create something beautiful that we acquire human wholeness? Relevant authors will include Fotios Kontoglou, Christopher Alexander, Michael J. Lewis, and others. : We read Alexander’s The Timeless Way against the treatment of St. Dionysios the Areopagite, in Eric Perl’s Theophany, against the thought of St. Maximos the Confessor, against the life and words of St. Elder Porphyrios in Wounded by Love. With this combination you get the theology, the philosophy, the sanctity, and the practical application all at once. They explain each other, and each one safeguards us from the pitfalls we mere mortals tend to fall into when reading any of them in isolation. 433
St Maximos … uses the term logos, with a small ‘l,” for each thing’s specific and particular share of the self-offering of the Logos. … the identity of each thing that exists is a dimension or facet of the “big L” Logos, Christ himself. … each bit of creation will see in Christ’s limitless self-offering to the world, a Beautiful “personalized invitation” rather than an overwhelming imposition. 438
Christ … He therefore shows how we become human, which is by starting with some particular set of limitations and then transcending these in the life of spiritual adventure. 440
In Beauty we love Christ and him crucified, while in Goodness we consent to be crucified with him for the life of the world. 441
When married couples entrust their lives to each other, what they are doing is trading an infinity of possibilities for the possibility of infinity. Their being born to each other requires that they “die” to all other possible spouses. 447
Icons are creation doing what creation does best - “capturing” the invisible God in a mystical reflection. 459
Like the gospel message itself, they summon, not crush. 459
The truth-first approach … belongs properly to Christ. He is the Logos, the Truth, who consents to the Goodness of self-emptying, and thus shines out radiantly as Beauty. 461
They present the gospel, or … [its] moral teaching … as if they were weapons…. It would be better if, in a Beauty-first way, they were to allow the gospel and its chaste life to attract those who are tired of living under the sentence of death …. 477
Spiritual guides … do not give you a truth-first final picture of yourself but rather a Beauty-first final picture of your goal – Christ the Resurrected One, triumphant over death. 488-489
Andrei Rublev’s icon, “The Hospitality of Abraham” …. In Orthodoxy, this Rublev icon is deservedly regarded as the icon of the Holy Trinity. 489
Both monastic mysticism and marriage are constituted by hospitality. 490
Hospitality combines eros and agape. It is a reaching out to otherness (an eros) that is simultaneously a taking in, a reception, a co-suffering empathy (an agape). 491
The traditions have been broken, or at least marginalized, many times in history, and almost as many times they have been pieced back together and recovered. 506
Wendell Berry … convinces us that land that is taken care of properly can become a garden, a paradise, and a work of art. 508
It is the farm community that Berry cherishes, as much as the farmer. 512
We are not meant to return to the Garden, and according to [Jane] Jacobs, farming turns out to be city work transplanted into the countryside. 514
Chapter Seven: Beauty Will Save the World: Social Justice, Judgment Day, and the Human Need to Forgive God 517-622
We repent … because heaven has come upon us. 520
Helping is not enough. We have to see in the poor, and at times also in ourselves when we are poor, a theophany: Christ crucified but victorious. This is Beauty-first. And we have to consent to be co-crucified with the poor and as the poor for the sake of Christ. This is the Almsgiving, or Empathy, or Goodness that unfolds from Beauty. 536
The problems down here are so complex that many times the most rational course is prayer rather than any particular social action. 541-542
All in all, I count eight beautiful ways that we react with perfect love to the presence of Christ in the crucified poor. These ways are: the services of the Church; noetic prayer; monastic charity, motherhood, mission work; social or philanthropic work; all the hospitalities of marriage; and our vocations in the world. 545
In Christ all life becomes both a doxology and a theophany. We see God enthroned everywhere, in every creature, leaf and blade of grass, and yet understand that somehow in his humility He also asks for our kind welcome and care. And so we praise God by conveying the mercy we receive from him to all of the creation around us. 549
You can’t square the circle of promoting both responsibility and compassion, except through love and uncreated grace. 564
Righteous anger is necessary and appropriate, but somehow these days what we get is its opposite - self-righteous anger. 569
Just try and do what is right with as much love and patience as you can muster. 570
For a Christian not to centralize love and mystery in discussions of social order would be madness. 572
Of the three types of social justice - the individual “just desserts” approach (justice); the social “structural inequality approach (mercy); and the Church’s way, wherein we wash another person’s feet (love) - we in the Church should put most of our emphasis on the third way, on the way that cherishes the image of Christ in the person. 580
More rational to see that society is complex, and that it will only work if we all try to love each other, than to imagine that you could program people and policy like a machine. 587
The appearing of the Cross - in the world reveals not one but two vulnerable groups: those rich who neglect Lazarus, and Lazarus himself, the poor man at the gate 591
Helping the poor is this prophetic act by which we unknow the outward difference between ourselves and the one suffering 592
Because we now conduct the social wedding liturgy as if it were a divorce proceeding, many people have grown disgusted with politics altogether; they are checking out of the liturgy, out of civil society. 594
Chapter Eight: The City as Liturgy: How Jane Jacobs Used the Beautiful Science of Complexity to Explain Cities, and Unknowingly Reconciled Science and Religion 623-724
The obvious answer would have been to remove the barriers to home loans and self-employent in the slums, and then let the people take care of themselves. 640
Jane Jacobs’ research tactics for organic, living systems:
Reason inductively rather than deductively 664
Pay attention to the processes even more t
July 2, 2021
This book I highly recommend for anyone seeking to understand the true purpose in life. The author uncovers many hidden feelings, events, deceptions that have influenced our thinking and attitude in life. He addresses every ethical topic from traumatic events we have all experienced, our choices in how we allow (or not allow) healing, deeper look into why unfortunate tragedy happens, empathy, analysis of modern therapeutic techniques and why many times those analytical methods fail, and healing techniques we can embrace that are proven and do work, just to name a few...
Also addressed are issues like family, sexuality, war, movie-making. It is highly interesting, nicely compartmentalized with a question/answer style, uses references and history to make key points, and difficult to put down. It is not a book to skim and read rapidly. I find myself going back and reviewing key points, because each page and each chapter builds on the prior, and some themes are new to those of us not schooled in Ethics and Theology.
This book is shaping how I view the world, those around me, how traumatic events affect us, my reaction to positive/negative events in my life, and most importantly, my view of God, creation, and salvation. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to gain a firm grasp on how our view on life has developed and steps we can take to refocus our life on true Beauty and peace!
Also addressed are issues like family, sexuality, war, movie-making. It is highly interesting, nicely compartmentalized with a question/answer style, uses references and history to make key points, and difficult to put down. It is not a book to skim and read rapidly. I find myself going back and reviewing key points, because each page and each chapter builds on the prior, and some themes are new to those of us not schooled in Ethics and Theology.
This book is shaping how I view the world, those around me, how traumatic events affect us, my reaction to positive/negative events in my life, and most importantly, my view of God, creation, and salvation. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to gain a firm grasp on how our view on life has developed and steps we can take to refocus our life on true Beauty and peace!
January 27, 2023
The Ethics of Beauty Timothy G. Patitsas
This is not the kind of book I usually read, but it got enthusiastic reviews from the Close Reads team, so I followed up. It's probably done more to change my approach to living than anything one book I've read.
In the triad of the true, the good, and the beautiful, this book posits that Beauty First is the way to wholeness, healing, and real happiness. It talks about beauty as if it's a prism, with facets of eros, chastity, faith, and liturgy. Reading this book was like everything falling into place.
That being said, the book is odd. It's written as a Q&A, as a facsimile of conversation. It's written by an Orthodox theologian and contains a lot of doctrine that was unfamiliar to me, as a Catholic. It examines its thesis by branching off in wildly different directions, from trauma therapy to how cities work. And yet it works. Especially, for me, the epilogue.
This is not the kind of book I usually read, but it got enthusiastic reviews from the Close Reads team, so I followed up. It's probably done more to change my approach to living than anything one book I've read.
In the triad of the true, the good, and the beautiful, this book posits that Beauty First is the way to wholeness, healing, and real happiness. It talks about beauty as if it's a prism, with facets of eros, chastity, faith, and liturgy. Reading this book was like everything falling into place.
That being said, the book is odd. It's written as a Q&A, as a facsimile of conversation. It's written by an Orthodox theologian and contains a lot of doctrine that was unfamiliar to me, as a Catholic. It examines its thesis by branching off in wildly different directions, from trauma therapy to how cities work. And yet it works. Especially, for me, the epilogue.
March 17, 2023
I have NO idea why it took me a year and a half to get through this book, but it really was excellent. It was quite easy to read, and for the most part with few exceptions very engrossing. Dr Patitsas covers a TON of topics and I learned a lot from this book. I learned a little bit about everything from symbolism to healing from trauma to architecture, the priesthood, gender roles and theology, city planning, Plato, St Dionysius the Areopagite, ancient paganism, and everything in between. I suppose that even though it was accessible, I had to keep putting it down to sort of ruminate on what I'd read for a while because the topics he discusses are really important and applicable, no matter how abstract they may seem on the surface. There were a few spots where Dr Patitsas sort of "lost me" because I have ADHD and my attention wanders if I'm not interested, but considering the size of this book that happened infrequently and not due to any fault with the book. I can't recommend this book enough, especially to Orthodox Christians. Really, everyone has something to gain from reading this book.
January 13, 2025
Amazing book!!!
Reading this book truly brought me closer to the Orthodox Theophany. I feel that I have a much better understanding of those 'fractal patterns' I so often hear discussed in Orthodox circles.
Chapters 1-4 & 6 were particularly impactful on me. And I LOVE how the healing of trauma is a central focus that is continually referred back to.
"Beauty First" is such a powerful mental framework that I think everyone should learn and incorporate asap. I will also be referring back to "The Mystical Architect" chapter over and over again - probably the best and most thorough explanation of Logos, logoi, agape, eros, and the Platonic Forms one could hope to find!
I almost gave 4/5 stars, because there are parts that feel repetitive, and other sections which may have been easier to absorb if they had been separated into their on book. But at the end of the day, the book is a march through the mind of a brilliant thinker, and really expresses an entire worldview in an easily accessible way.
Reading this book truly brought me closer to the Orthodox Theophany. I feel that I have a much better understanding of those 'fractal patterns' I so often hear discussed in Orthodox circles.
Chapters 1-4 & 6 were particularly impactful on me. And I LOVE how the healing of trauma is a central focus that is continually referred back to.
"Beauty First" is such a powerful mental framework that I think everyone should learn and incorporate asap. I will also be referring back to "The Mystical Architect" chapter over and over again - probably the best and most thorough explanation of Logos, logoi, agape, eros, and the Platonic Forms one could hope to find!
I almost gave 4/5 stars, because there are parts that feel repetitive, and other sections which may have been easier to absorb if they had been separated into their on book. But at the end of the day, the book is a march through the mind of a brilliant thinker, and really expresses an entire worldview in an easily accessible way.
Read
May 7, 2025I can only try to supplement the reviews already here. Reading this book is like drinking from a firehose. I'm not one to say this, but I'll need to read it another time or two. It's not difficult material, but it has so many implications to think through.
It's given me invaluable insight into my wife's trauma and how I can better perceive and react to it.
This work was also the final push I needed to break out of my Enlightenment bubble.
This is not a succinct thesis with tightly-supported arguments that a reader might expect from a book like this. That isn't to say it's not chock full of erudition, but I think it's very approachable in a conversational sort of way.
I can't quite recommend this book as a whole to everyone, but I think it contains information that everyone should know if they don't already.
It's given me invaluable insight into my wife's trauma and how I can better perceive and react to it.
This work was also the final push I needed to break out of my Enlightenment bubble.
This is not a succinct thesis with tightly-supported arguments that a reader might expect from a book like this. That isn't to say it's not chock full of erudition, but I think it's very approachable in a conversational sort of way.
I can't quite recommend this book as a whole to everyone, but I think it contains information that everyone should know if they don't already.
December 13, 2023
Dr. Patitsas has written a book so chock-full of beauty, truth, and goodness. The book covers so much territory, while at the same time being accessible and a pleasure to read. It was astonishing at times to see just how Dr. Patitsas minds works and how he can draw connections between ideas that seem completely obscure when he begins presenting them. I was blown away by how profound and deep some of the ideas were. The book obviously needs a reread to let the ideas work through me again after finishing and seeing the entire scope of his thought process.
I agree with other reviews that state this is a transcendent timeless book.
I agree with other reviews that state this is a transcendent timeless book.
June 9, 2022
Difficult to summarize this book because he makes so many great points on topics ranging from trauma, gender differences, city planning, Orthodoxy, and somehow ties them all together. Best book I have read in a very long time. Unfortunate that it is so expensive, that is my one critique- it could have been released as 2 or 3 books to be more accessible, it is quite large.
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January 20, 2024This is an expansive book with 100 page chapters on an essential subject—the role of beauty in our ethical
Lives and in the order /movement of the transcendentals. How do we arrive at goodness and truth—usually through beauty. Think Weight of Glory.
Lives and in the order /movement of the transcendentals. How do we arrive at goodness and truth—usually through beauty. Think Weight of Glory.
November 19, 2024
Wow, what a challenge! This book has so many good nuggets that encourage the reader to see the world through a Beauty-First lens. It has helped me to understand people better and has reminded me to show the beauty of Christ in the way I live.
October 6, 2024
Excellent book!
March 14, 2025
Read it!
November 13, 2025
Incredibly accessible (like you’re having a conversation), this book presents an alternative "Beauty First"/soul-centered approach to seeking and knowing God, which he opposes to "Truth First"/mind-centered. Through that approach to spirituality, Dr. Patitsas then applies this principle to other pressing issues of our modern day, including healing trauma and PTSD, gender and sexual relations, mathematics, biology, and city planning.
This book gave me the words and permission to seek God in a way that made sense to me and opened my heart to wonder that has made every day a mystery. I see the world differently now and this has allowed me to make sense of things of complex issues that before were baffling. This book was truly lifechanging.
This book gave me the words and permission to seek God in a way that made sense to me and opened my heart to wonder that has made every day a mystery. I see the world differently now and this has allowed me to make sense of things of complex issues that before were baffling. This book was truly lifechanging.
November 20, 2024
5 star in every sense of the phrase. A monster of a book, it took me 6 months of reading due both to plain size, and because I had to keep putting it down and processing before moving on. But at the same time, completely readable. Starting over almost immediately.
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