People need beauty

Beauty is the antidote for ‘spiritual worldliness’

Roger Scruton opposes the modern trends that lead to the presence of desecration in our world and the absence of beauty: "Much of our public art is a loveless art, and one that is also entirely without the humility that comes from love." Scruton will be speaking in Vancouver on May 5 about proposed solutions to this grave problem.

The distinguished philosopher Roger Scruton speaks of beauty as a way of access to God:

"In creating beauty, the artist gives glory to God's creation," said Scruton. But he also spoke of the trend in art today that instead worships ugliness and desecration.

Applying his philosophical skill, Scruton discovered the reason for this lamentable trend: "Desecration is a sort of defense against the sacred, an attempt to destroy its claims."

"Our lives will be judged before sacred things; and in order to escape that judgment, we destroy the thing that seems to accuse us," Scruton explained. "And since beauty reminds us of the sacred - and is even a special form of it - beauty must also be desecrated."

Scruton has spoken on the topic of beauty in not many places. In a rare trip to the West Coast, Scruton will be speaking about beauty on Sunday, May 5, at 7 p.m. at Regent College in Vancouver at an event co-sponsored by Redeemer Pacific College.

For the full story see The B.C. Catholic website.