Matt O'Reilly, PhD

“There is no argument against beauty.” -Peter Kreeft It has become increasingly clear to me in recent years that North American evangelical Christianity suffers from a lack of confidence in and appreciation for Beauty. We pursue and call for the Good and the True, yet our strategy has centered primarily on syllogistic rationalism. We’re not all that apt at aesthetics. We love Truth, but we’ve forgotten that whatever is true is also beautiful, and we’ve forgotten that Beauty i

Everyone operates with some definition of the word “good.”  As far as I can tell, such definitions are usually arrived at without explicit thoughtfulness and usually involve moralistic criteria.  We think people are basically good if they seem to care a bit about others and minimize expressly harmful activity.  So, humanitarians are good and murderers are bad, and people who get a lot of speeding tickets are basically good, if a little rambunctious.  But one problem with defi

I’ve never really read Jonathan Edwards (I know, I know, shame on me), but I’m presently reading Gerald McDermott’s brief guide to The Great Theologians (IVP), and he includes a chapter introducing several major points in Edwards’ thought.  One issue struck me particularly.  According to McDermott, “Edwards said that what distinguishes the regenerate from the unregenerate is that the former see the beauty of holiness.  The latter see only God’s holiness.  This is why the devi