
Saint thomas aquinas a model of sensuous
beautyIn the middle ages, Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274),
one of the greatest of the medieval Christian theologians, commented
on what he thought were the elements of
Beauty. What was an offhanded comment in his m
onumental Summa Theologica has become for many lovers of
beauty, a model of evaluati
on and appreciati
on based
on three c
oncepts: wholeness, balance, and radiance. If a work of art c
ontains all the three elements, then the observer may be reas
onably assured that the work is beautiful. Should
one of these three comp
onents be found deficient then the work will be deficient; and though it may gain acceptance as a work of art, it will never be c
onsidered beautiful. But before I propose my own opini
ons about
beauty, let me do a bit of history: The ancient Greeks’ word for
beauty was kalos, a word that owned other c
onnotati
ons such as “what is proper,” of “what is good;” and as a result the Greeks didn’t leave us a clear cut model of
beauty. And incidentally, though Plato’s theory of forms leads to an absolute
beauty, which is transcendental, I am interested in
beauty that is of this world.