PERSPECTIVES IN THE EVOLUTION OF CHRISTIAN
AND SECULAR PHILOSOPHIES IN ASTHETICS
Profession # 2
History beyond the Bible

To begin, Plato's idea of the forms included his beliefs on aesthetics. In his paper on aesthetic norms, Alex Forrest explains that, "for Plato, beauty was one of the Forms, an eternally fixed ideal that could not be perfectly emulated in the material world but that none the less existed. He asks rhetorically, 'And he who having a sense of beautiful things has no sense of absolute beauty... Is he awake or in dream only?' The conclusion is such that a man is living in a dream rather than reality. Conversely, the one who recognizes the existence of absolute beauty is wide awake."1
In her book, Jensen says that in Plato's theory "beauty does not passively work on us but stirs us up to strive this union [with the Divine]. While we strive, we are transformed: as we progress toward this goal, we are gradually shaped in its own image."2
Obviously, Plato was moving in the right direction, much more so than would be expected from one who is not a believer. Though Plato's ideas were not founded on the correct universals, he built many clearly Christian assumptions based on his perception on the world around him.

Working off of Plato's theories at a much later date, Plotinus made further developments on this philosophy. Jensen explains Plotinus' beliefs on beauty by explaining his statement thus:
Let us, then, go back to the source, and indicate at once the Principle that bestows beauty on material things. Undoubtedly, this Principle exists; it is something that is perceived at the first glance, something which the soul names as from an ancient knowledge, and recognizing, welcomes it, enters into unison with it....This, then, is how the material thing becomes beautiful--by communicating in the beauty that flows from the Divine.' Thus, for Plotinus, as for Plato, progression lies first in the attraction of the objective for the observer, next in the relationship that emerges between the two, and finally in the recognition that both attraction and relationship are dependent upon the ultimate source of beauty itself. Beauty is not the goal or highest reality; its source, the Good, is. Our aspirations are, ultimately, toward the Good.3

From these philosophers, the fact is made apparent that even the unregenerate man is able to come to the conclusion that there is some deeper meaning that art itself in a thing of beauty. From simple general revelation, these men were able to see deep biblical truth that remains elusive to many Christians.

1Alex Forrest, Beauty is Not in The Eye of The Beholder, p.2-3.
2Robin Jensen, The Substance of Things Seen, p.7.
3Ibid, p.7-8.