Saving Beauty: cultivating an abundant heart in a time of pandemic

If beauty is a matter of the heart Setting the scene for the Zoom sessions led by Dr Mark S Burrows on 1 st May 2021

If beauty is a matter of the heart, it is also at the heart of what matters, and might well be the heart of matter itself. It is that dimension of reality that the American poet A. R. Ammons spoke of in inviting us to “consider the radiance. . .”.

It points to a sense of abundance in the midst of want, inviting us to glimpse a wholeness that holds us in our fragmented lives. Beauty is the savour we sometimes taste in the midst of our longings, a ballast in the storms that unsettle the little ship of our lives. In a time of pandemic, with all its shadowed uncertainties, finding beauty—or, better: being found by beauty—is essential for our very survival, if not also for our thriving.

Our inquiry on this day will explore beauty not as something outside of us, but rather as a radiance that happens to us—and, ultimately, through us. In such ways, we will consider Dostoevsky’s startling claim that “beauty alone will save us,” opening something vital in the midst of the “ordinary” in our lives, and precisely at the places of our struggles and fears, hesitations and doubts.

Drawing on poems and insights from artists, theologians, and philosophers, we will invite beauty to restore within us a way of seeing things “whole,” one that might inspire us to live from an abundant heart. Register for the event at http://www.ocsg.uk.net