Monday, November 22, 2010

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - and a problem with the modern world

The modern world has its own wonders. But they are very different from the wonders of the ancient world. The modern world has created wonders of invention, of efficiency, of communication, and of discovery. But, unlike the ancients, we have no wonders of beauty. Even an ancient wonder like the pyramid -- some in our cynical age might call it a monument to the ego of a tyrant -- even it has a beauty and symmetry that stands the test of time. I once read a description of the ancient pyramids in the days before centuries of looters; they were covered with white stone and capped with gold. They were beautiful. The hanging gardens of Babylon, again one of the wonders of the ancient world, was not only a marvel of engineering in its day, it was also an earthly paradise.

The ancient wonders highlight some things that our world has lost, things that our age does not value. There is little intent to create beauty, little respect even for the thought of it. And one distinguishing mark of the wonders of the ancient world was exactly a sense of wonder -- that is, these things were created to be marveled at, to bring delight or awe or even a sense of the holy and transcendent into this world. Our "wonders" are entirely secular wonders, or to be more exact, wonders produced by a world that only recognizes the secular as valid. When was the last time our world's cultures produced a work of true beauty, a wonder in the ancient sense?

As the vision of paradise fades from the minds of men, the intentional beauty fades from the things we create. One of the most obvious marks of secularism is a kind of desert in the culture.

Some people speak of a zeitgeist, a spirit of the age. Just as it is possible for a person to have a personality that is not well-rounded, I think the zeitgeist of secularism -- the spirit of our age -- has a very one-sided personality, one that is efficient but has forgotten warmth, beauty, and kindness. For anyone interested in psychology, I wonder: is the zeitgeist, that spirit of our times, effectively the same thing as our superego, the voice of our conscience? If so, then a distorted spirit of the age leads directly to the same thing being echoed on down through each personality in the age, and being transmitted as the new normal to the next generation.

It remains for us, then, who find our times to be shallow and cynical to do something about that. It remains for us, who are uncomfortably squeezed by the narrow and bitter spirit of our times, to stake a claim in our age for kindness and decency, for beauty, for holiness, for paradise, and for wonder. These are the echoes of Eden, these are the things that have been systematically chased out of our age, and these are the things of the kingdom of heaven on earth. People find it very easy to scoff at religion in an age where all the people -- even Christians -- go along with the cesspool of cynicism that is modern news and politics, the routine fraud and injustice in government and economics, the institutionalized mediocrity that is education. The job falls to us to create lasting families and deep friendships that are the stuff our world is starved for, to re-create the concept of fellowship in our age, and to re-introduce the holy and the beautiful into this world.

"Prepare the way for the Lord" -- it is our job to make every valley exalted, and every mountain bowed down, to make straight in this desert a highway for our God. John the Baptist did not build literal roads; he built a spirit of readiness for God.

9 comments:

Howard said...

Some of your thoughts on beauty and wonder here brought to mind the lyrics of the song, The Circus of Heaven by Yes:
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/yes/circus-of-heaven.html
(Which has a particularly apt ending).

A pastor friend of mine often re-gains his sense of beauty and wonder by going to places where he can view the animal kingdom. For myself (and I suspect for many others), it is often fed by the grandeur of the natural world rather than the ancient world. Whilst I certainly see something in what you have said, is the 'modern' (last 2,000 years) really as empty of beauty and of wonder as this entry may suggest? I have certainly viewed works of art, architecture and other medium (cinematography springs to mind) which have struck deeply in the fields of wonder and beauty.

Weekend Fisher said...

Hi Howard

For my current purposes, the "modern" world is the industrial-age world and since then. And I think, as far as beauty and wonder, I'd put it like this: art in the Middle Ages was more of a symphony. That is, all the people were pretty much working from the same sheet of music and under the same director, and you could get some impressive pieces both in size and complexity just from having that many people cooperating on the same thing.

These days, there are remnants of the same art form -- but the common expression is as bands. Their works are short and are for just a few players. It's not that the art form has died out; but compared to what it has been in other ages ... it's a little on the pathetic side.

I spent this afternoon at a plant nursery, admiring their olive trees and bougainvillea collection among other things. While we draw our inspiration from the natural world, what we do with it comes out as human culture. And the culture of our age is less developed, artistically and aesthetically, than many of the ages that have gone before us.

If you look at the capabilities of what we could produce now (20th-21st centuries) compared to what could be produced 1000, 2000, or 3000 years ago -- and then compare what we actually do to what they actually did, I get the distinct impression our age is an age of underachievers when it comes to beauty.

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF

Martin LaBar said...

Bingo.

I recently did a post on affirmation, claiming that there wasn't much of it.

Weekend Fisher said...

Ok, I remember your post on affirmation. But I'm puzzled about the tie-in here. Going to go re-read that ...

Fighting cynicism and building up what is good ... I'm hoping I got the right tie-in?

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF

Howard said...

WF stated:
"I think, as far as beauty and wonder, I'd put it like this: art in the Middle Ages was more of a symphony"...

The era of the Cathedral Builders (4th to 15th Century)? Having recently re-viewed my own (UK) country's history over this time, it was far from a 'symphony'! After the squelching of the Saxon's by the Normans, the Plantagenet's heralded many centuries of civil unrest (Simon De Montfort, The Baron's Revolt, the War of the Roses, the Hundred years war, to name a few 'highlights'). The interesting thing about these times was that some of the best ideas regarding law and culture had come before this (under rulers like Alfred and Edward) and the reason for much of the unrest was the tyranny and mis-use of power by those who ruled - something, no doubt, also true in ancient cultures.

The 'Golden Age' really begins here following the passing of Henry and Mary and splendor of the rule of Elizabeth. This period would give us a wonderful development of art, language, learning, and the slow progress of those social freedoms so longed for in the previous centuries. This enriching certainly went on right through until the 'new learning' which motivated many of the revolutions of the 17th century.

WF: "I get the distinct impression our age is an age of underachievers when it comes to beauty".

I'm not sure the 'unifying' ideology which inspired the beauty of the eras you grant prominence would be as productive as suggested. If I had to live in any of these periods rather than our own, the later Tudor world must have been a day filled with wonders.

Weekend Fisher said...

Hi Howard

The previous ages were definitely uneven in quality, no doubt about that. The world has had different Golden Ages in different regions, both before and after the advent of Christ.

I simply don't see the same effort towards beauty in our age, or the last century or so, anywhere.

If you're seeing it, I'm very curious where. I'm not denying it might exist -- just if it does, I wonder if it's kept itself something of a secret ...

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF

Howard said...

Perhaps it's looking in different places? One of the key spheres of wonder for me in our own times has been the golden age of Science Fiction - the works of writers like Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert and the like certainly supplied this in a fashion which, personally, has yet to be equaled. As for beauty, the Pre-Raphelites and many artists inspired by such perspectives often leave me speechless.

Weekend Fisher said...

I think we may have ended up the same place after all. Our age has lots of wonders -- but they generally don't involve beauty.

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF

Howard said...

Enjoy a little modern wonder and beauty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FheQe8rflWQ