The Metaphysics of Liturgical Beauty
The Metaphysics of Liturgical Beauty

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to address the problem of the liturgy—understood here in terms of the conceptual models of the new (post–Vatican II) and old (pre-conciliar, “Tridentine”) forms of the Roman Catholic rite—in the context of the notion of beauty as developed within the tradition of philosophical realism. As an act of praise, the liturgy takes up and gives expression to the intelligibility and lovability of being, with particular emphasis on the liturgical causation of the personal, in which the agent is both the human subject and the Logos (Christ). As a result, philosophical reflection necessarily encounters a significant theological dimension that must be taken into account. Moreover, liturgy involves essential aesthetic elements, insofar as it makes use of material forms and artifacts that are ontologically meaningful and directed toward praise, and thus toward beauty. The liturgy is a particular act of cognition and contemplation—one that is necessarily embodied and visible—and for this reason, beauty plays a decisive role within it. However, this also implies that liturgical non-beauty plays a significant role. Establishing the ontological status of non-beauty makes it possible to raise the question of orthodoxy and unorthodoxy with regard to both ritual in general and the liturgical act in particular. The article proposes that beauty functions as a criterion and measure of liturgical orthodoxy.

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