I have no idea why I wrote that title just now, except that I've been studying scripture this morning, bemoaning my lack of knowledge and training. There is of course plain meaning in words, but there is also the shimmered layering that floats over centuries and translation. The appearance of a word in language is …
Beauty and Race
I talked with some beautiful people last week. The Northwest Church has a history of doing special events on MLK Sunday, having long been interested in racial reconciliation. This year, I invited five panelists (two black men, two black women, and one white woman) to participate in a half-hour conversation about the current status of …
Beauty is Order
This sounds static, suggesting at first glance symmetry, a stolid arrangement of properties that 50's housewives might call beautiful, but to the eyes and hearts of the postmodern...boring. For the wilder romantic, order means predictability means oppression (in the realm of experience). To be alive means to meet the chaotic mix of experience full-on, without …
Beauty is Relationship
When it comes to perception, we start with the senses. We are a visual culture, and in casual usage, the word "beauty" is most often associated with what we see. Beauty that strikes us visually usually involves a pleasing or satisfying "form," some relationship between various aesthetic properties that we often perceive in an instant. …
Beauty
What is "beauty's" primary referent? What exists that gives us the notion of beauty? Where does the very idea begin? How important is beauty? What is its nature and meaning? How do we account for its pervasive presence in experience? How does life change with the waxing and waning of beauty? Is beauty a thing …
JEFF BERRYMAN 