What Makes the World Beautiful and Good?
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote the following aphorism: “A dangerous resolve.— The Christian resolve to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.[1]
Like most of Nietzsche’s aphorisms, this short sentence carries a great deal of meaning. Among other things, it succinctly and articulately captures Voltaire’s anti-Christian sentiment, an impressive feat that most “free-thinking” and weak-minded agnostics attempt (rarely with success) whenever they denounce organized religion (read: Christianity) for being the source of most wars. We can discuss this charge in other posts.
Here, I wish to reflect on the charge that Christianity, especially Catholicism, is too judgmental, too rigid, too fire-and-brimstone. It condemns this life, this world, and all its joys. It fosters hypercriticism of self and others and breeds guilt and misery. Or so they say.
Anyone who has ever sung a Christmas carol knows that this charge cannot be wholly true, but still, we should not take it lightly. Anything which drives people away from the One True Faith ought to be considered carefully. What’s more, this charge cowed the Church.
Here, I wish to reflect on the charge that Christianity, especially Catholicism, is too judgmental, too rigid, too fire-and-brimstone.
In response to this charge, the Church began to “moderate.” She began to become very uncomfortable with talking about sin and error and very reluctant to find (and call) any part of this world ugly or bad. In time, she only wanted to talk about love (almost never defined, since that would lead us—gasp!—to the Trinity) or mercy (again, only on the most superficial level so as to avoid the hard topics).
The Church also changed her liturgical practices. Away went the incense and the Latin, the great church organs and the high church choir. Up rose the hokey hippie songs and the acoustic guitars, the cloying lullabies and the dinky electric pianos. (All due respect to hokey hippie songs, acoustic guitars, cloying lullabies, and dinky electric pianos. They have their proper places in this life. It’s just not in Mass.)
And we were told to accept these changes or be like the Pharisees.
Now, no one likes the Pharisees. They are inflexible, hypocritical, and spiteful. And this is exactly why Traditional Catholics are often compared to them.
Our Enemy is intelligent. He knows what disgusts us and what attracts us. He knows that we hate being called Pharisees, and he knows that the beauty of the Mass has saved a lot of souls throughout history. So, is it any wonder he tricked us into making our Masses ugly and boring? Any wonder that he shames anyone who tries to restore the grandeur of the Mass by comparing them to these wicked “holy” men?
By trying to prove that Catholicism is not too judgmental, by offering more approachable (read: adulterated) versions of Church Teaching, by making Mass less stuffy and ritualistic, the Church has not made the world any less ugly or bad. In fact, with a Church that prioritizes being congenial and unassertive, ugliness and evil are on the rise.
Thus, a free-thinking and strong-minded believer might with justice say: The Christian resolve to find the world beautiful and good has failed to make the world beautiful and good.
In fact, with a Church that prioritizes being congenial and unassertive, ugliness and evil are on the rise.
It’s almost as if those attributes of goodness and beauty (Huh, it feels like we’re missing one…) belong to something else, to Someone else, and the more we distance ourselves from Him, the less those attributes describe us and our world.
[1] Friedrich Nietzsche, Basic Writings of Nietzsche, trans. and ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Random House, 2000), 172. [The Gay Science, Section 130]
