The Words of the Johnson Family
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The Words of the Johnson Family |
Stand before an exquisite work of art, and a sense of wonder comes over you. Go ahead, make yourself vulnerable to all of those emotional stimulations that wash over you. The Creator put them there with the intent of evoking in you just such depths of emotion. First, at the simplest level comes a sensation of beauty. We feel this as a response to the harmony we see. Our curiosity may be stimulated also, as we seek to understand the motive for why the artist created as he did.
Our capacities for awe, wonder, understanding, insight, compassion, our appreciation of beauty, our acknowledgment of order and harmony, and finally, a transcendent joy, may each in turn be triggered within us. At I wit h religious themes may evoke us in a feeling of sanctification, or purity, as we experience spiritual enlightenment. For one crystal moment, we are put in touch with eternity, with eternal values which God meant for us to have from the beginning.
Artistic creations stimulate our thinking and emotional awareness of the world around us, and we experience a reflection, a recognition, of something within ourselves: something beautiful!
Dr. Sang Hun Lee is the author of Communism: Critique and Counter-proposal and Unification Thought, both considered authoritative expressions of True Father's thought. Dr. Lee has been a faithful follower of our True Parents for a quarter of a century, dedicating every moment of his life to the search for a perfect expression of the truth revealed by our True Parents!
His new book, Explaining Unification Thought, is a synthesis of his research, meditation and prayer during his entire life as a disciple of Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
As he states in the preface, "My chief concern in this text has been to preserve the authenticity of the core of the Unification Principle, while seeking for wider and wider application of it to philosophical areas. While substantially identical with my other book, Unification Thought (New York: Unification Thought Institute, 1973) the present book differs in breadth of scope, including new chapters, new concepts, and new expressions of old concepts. Four new chapters have been added: Logic, Theory of Education, Theory of Art and a newly constructed Methodology. Furthermore, Theory of the Original Image previously dealt with as a section of Ontology has now become a chapter by itself. Thus, the book has now 11 chapters, now covering almost all fields of traditional philosophy.
"The ideas set forth here represent an effort to compress 24 years of study and reflection I have had the opportunity to do after becoming a follower of Reverend Sun Myung Moon."
Explaining Unification Thought, now undergoing its final preparation for publication as edited by Paul Perry, should be available soon through HSA-UWC Publications Office. This article is an adaptation of one section of the chapter Theory of Art. Supplementary material added by this writer to the final section appears in brackets.
A chapter on the philosophy or theory of art occupies an important part of Unification Thought. The act of creating is central to man's identity as a child of God, the Creator. The coming ideal restored society of Unified Culture which we envision will manifest more creativity than ever before possible. The principles examined in the Theory of Art apply to the many fields of architecture, music, sculpture and painting, as well as theater arts.
Why have a philosophy of art? Earlier thinkers considered such topics as the nature of art, the classifications of types of beauty and the role artists play, in their society. In Unification Principle, it is explained that all human endeavors spring from the three primary interrelated functions of man's inner being: His intellect is concerned with thinking and cognition, as discussed in the chapter Epistemology.
Man's will determines the direction, modifying the strength and/or quality of desire and effort, in the attempt to bring about goodness and value in his life.
Finally, it is man's heart which is concerned with loving and emotions, appreciation and the corresponding return of beauty. In this view, the study of the Theory of Art emphasizes the interrelatedness of emotion and creative activity.
Man's original creative nature is a central theme running throughout Unification Thought. Indeed, most chapters touch upon some aspects of man's creativity.
In the Theory of the Original Image, the origin of creativity is decidedly placed in God's own heart; the desire to create is an unquenchable desire to love and to experience joy.
The chapter Ontology (the theory of created beings) elaborates on God's creations and their resemblance to their Creator. The very motive, ideals and methods for creating the universe become embodied in every creation. The Principles and laws of sung sang/hyung sang complementarity, dual purposes -- for existence, two-stage structure of creation, and the desire to feel joy are inherently the core for all human cultural activities.
Theory of Education is a chapter bursting with expectation that the greatest creativity mankind has ever known will .4,55 e forth, 1n every field of human endeavor, when education of the heart takes priority over technical education. Indeed, here we see how God gave man creativity for the purpose of dominion, so that man can create things and dominate with love.
Theory of Art has many important aspects in completing an academic understanding of creativity, but most significant is its power to forge together, within the life of an individual; the motivation for creating with the practice of morality and ethics.
Creation and appreciation are activities of dominion. If man had not fallen he would have gone through the three stages of formation, growth and completion and would have been given authority of dominion after having grown through these three stages. Only when artists understand this in detail will they seriously endeavor to become truly ethical.
Numerous artists have dealt with themes of love in their novels, plays, movies and other art forms, but very rarely were the artists themselves persons of high ethical standards. In fact, a great number of them spent their lives wantonly. The kinds of love mundane artists have usually portrayed are not God's love but fallen love -- that is, the fallen love of the archangel, who deceived Eve, as well as the fallen love of Eve, who deceived Adam. As a rule, artists have modified and embellished fallen love.
Accordingly, artistic beauty has been expressed on the basis of fallen love, not true love or God's love. Only when artists realize God's love in their lives -- that is, when they realize the unity of art and ethics -- will they be able to create a true work of art.
Art is a treasured element of mankind's cultural heritage. In this chapter we will attempt to clarify our attitude toward it.
Reverend Sun Myung Moon has begun artistic activities with the Little Angels group in order to inspire people to give joy to God. It is not good for art to be used for political contrivance; true art can never be made into a tool of politics, for true art is that which pleases God and man. Another reason why a theory of art is necessary is that when society is restored to its original state, it will become an artistic society, where the purpose of creation is completely realized. In that society, people will love one another; for that reason, they will want to dance, sing and engage in various kinds of artistic activities. In the ideal society, economic problems will be solved: as a result, artistic activities will come to the fore. To those leaders who are trying to build such a society, a theory of art is indispensable.
If it is our aim to construct a new culture, we must pay attention to art, for art is the essence of culture. First, we must protect the cultural heritage we already have. This heritage includes architecture, sculpture, music, painting, industrial design, and so on. We feel responsible to inherit our own culture, and to keep it alive, and on this foundation, to develop a new culture.
This new culture will come about through the integration of the best elements within the cultures of various national and racial groups. So, keeping our national cultural heritages is a sine qua non for building a new culture.
I have developed the Unification Theory of Art deductively from the teachings of Unification Principle of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, making almost no reference to the traditional theories of art. Reverend Moon himself has a highly developed artistic sense, which I would like to make known through this theory. Based on this new theory we must play a central role in constructing a new culture.
Generally speaking, intellect is related to philosophy, will to morality and ethics, and emotion to art. So, art is the emotional activity of creating and appreciating beauty. The purpose of art is to produce joy. In other words, the purpose of creating and appreciating beauty is to be joyful. Therefore, in Unification Thought view, art is "the activity of creating joy through creation and appreciation of beauty." As explained later in this chapter, appreciation is a form of creation: accordingly, we can simply say that art is "the activity of creating joy through beauty."
Other scholars define it in various ways. Sir Herbert Read, for instance, said that "art is an attempt to create pleasing forms," along similar lines with Unification Thought view.
Beauty is determined by the give and take action between a subject (man) and an object, centering on purpose. There are numerous kinds of objects, such as flowers, birds, mountains and rivers; accordingly, numerous kinds of beauty can be perceived. Furthermore, the same object displays different kinds of beauty when perceived by different subjects. Flowers, for example, are perceived by a poet differently from the way they are perceived by either a scientist or artist.
In the Unification Principle, beauty and love are inseparable. There is no beauty apart from love. When considering types of beauty, therefore, we need first of all to think about the types of love. Take parental love, for example. The more parents love their children, the more beautiful the children become. The relationship between love and beauty is reciprocal. When the subject loves the object, the love of the subject is perceived by the object as beauty. Conversely, when the object gives beauty to the subject, the object's motive (starting point) should be love.
What types of love are there? There are three types of love in the Unification Principle: parental love, conjugal love and children's love. Then, what concretely are the types of beauty corresponding to the three types of love question by explaining love more deeply.
Parental love is either paternal or maternal. When parents love their children, their love is perceived emotionally by the children as beauty. I visited a certain family some time ago and asked the children, "Whom do you like best, your father or your mother?" They answered, "We like them both." "But whom do you like best?" I insisted.
One child answered "Father," and the other said, "Mother." To like someone is to feel that he or she is beautiful. The children felt their parents were beautiful because the parents gave them love.
Paternal love becomes paternal beauty for the children. Fathers do not always give their children tender, warm love. When the children are disobedient, fathers may punish, scold or frown at them. Although children may feel bad at that moment, they are usually thankful later. Strictness also can be an expression of love. Not only spring-like warmth, but also autumn- or winter-like strictness are expressions of the same love. This kind of love also may be felt as beauty by children. This may be called sublime beauty.
When we see the ocean, or majestic mountains or a waterfall that cascades over a high cliff, we feel a kind of awesome beauty. Where does this feeling come from? This type of beauty in nature is a modified extension of the paternal beauty we felt in our childhood.
Maternal love is different from paternal love. A mother is gentle, kind and peaceful. Children perceive maternal love as peaceful or graceful beauty.
We feel such beauty when we see, for instance, a statue of the Virgin Mary. After we have experienced such maternal beauty, we may feel it transformed into the peaceful beauty of the natural world.
What is children's beauty? Children with a loving heart look beautiful to their parents. Children's original nature is to make their parents happy. They do that through little things, such as showing their parents something they have painted or drawn, or making them laugh or romping cheerfully about. Sometimes children show their parents actions and gestures that are ludicrous and comical. This is comical beauty.
One form of children's love is their expressed need for love, attention and care. Infants and small children in their state of helplessness and innocence exhibit a special unique type of beauty, which may be called the beauty of vulnerability. This beauty stimulates or elicits the universal response of maternal love. Much poignant literature is centered on the theme of how maternal and paternal love is stimulated, when a child is orphaned or abandoned. The character development centers on fulfillment of need in this crisis of love. The power of children's vulnerability to stimulate love is documented in many classics.
As children grow, the love they express changes as they strive to find themselves in the proper roles of young man or young woman. Children's love takes the form of friendship; as boys and girls grow toward adolescence (top of the growth stage), their diversified beauty correlates with the changes of their love. Of utmost concern to them is their self-development and their position within their family and society. Social (horizontal) forms of love, like brotherly love and team participation, take high priority, as a young man (or woman) finds his (or her) self-image defined in these relationships. What beauty corresponds to these types of developmental love? Just as love takes many forms of diversity, beauty is returned in as many varieties.
As boys develop into men and girls into women, their loves will culminate in conjugal love, or married love, where the two complementary natures are merged into completeness. To love means to become one.
Once we have experienced children's beauty, we can begin to perceive such beauty all around us. For example, young animals, such as baby chicks, are lovely; flower buds also are delicately beautiful. These are extensions of children's beauty. In a family, the father sees the beauty of his children differently from the way the mother does. Similarly, a man and a woman probably appreciate different aspects of the beauty of nature.
Feminine beauty becomes the response (the complement) to masculine love, and masculine beauty is exchanged in return for feminine love.
Since everyone has a unique character, there are a great number of different kinds of masculine and feminine beauty -- among persons as well as in nature. The arts, cultural activities and our social life contribute to broaden our range of appreciating feminine and masculine beauty.
Our own wife (or husband) serves as the microcosm, or representative, of femininity (or masculinity), yet we are free to appreciate beauty from many sources, to enhance our knowledge of God's own multifaceted divine beauty.
In summary, the types of beauty correspond to the types of love. Parental love is felt as parental beauty (paternal and maternal beauty); conjugal love as conjugal beauty (masculine and feminine beauty); and children's love as children's beauty (including brothers' and sisters' beauty). These three kinds of love are God's love expressed divisionally through the basis of the family. Accordingly, beauty, as well as love, originates in God. This is the philosophical basis for the different kinds of beauty.