All posts tagged Michelangelo

  • October 26, 2015

    God Is Not A Monster

    The_Torment_of_Saint_Anthony (1)

    God Is Not A Monster
    Brian Zahnd

    There are monsters in this world, but the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not one of them.

    Yes, Virginia, there are monsters. We have an imagination for monsters because we know of their existence. Venomous and vicious beasts were a daily peril for our earliest ancestors. Volcanoes and tsunamis can swallow whole cities. Hurricanes and tornados roar from the heavens, leaving hell in their wake. Epidemics of disease are lethal predators taking their pitiless toll. Worst of all, there are monstrosities of men — conquerors and warlords, tyrants and despots — galloping across history like ringwraiths bringing conquest, war, famine, and death. We can imagine monsters because we have met them.

    But the living God is not one of them. Not the God who Jesus called Abba.
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    48 Comments / Jesus, Theology /

  • August 19, 2007

    An Aesthetic Gospel

    aesthetic: adjective 1 : of, relating to, or dealing with the beautiful

    God is the creator of beauty and a connoisseur of all that is truly beautiful. God is an artist and His canvass is creation. Beauty is an attribute of the divine like wisdom or holiness. Beauty has intrinsic value and needs no other justification than it is beautiful. In an age given over to the cult of pragmatism this may seem an extravagant claim, but it is true: Art needs no other justification other than it is beautiful. Does a flower have to justify its existence by being practical? Here’s what Ralph Waldo Emerson says about that in his poem The Rhodora.
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    1 Comment / Christianity, Theology /