“BEAUTY Will Save the World”
Part 1: The Allure and Mystery of Christianity
Small Group Questions for the Week of October 28, 2012
1. Pastor and author Brian Zahnd writes:
“A thousand years ago Prince Vladimir the Great, the pagan monarch of Kiev, was looking for a new religion to unify the Russian people. Toward this end Prince Vladimir sent out envoys to investigate the great faiths from the neighboring realms. When the delegations returned, they gave the prince their reports. Some had discovered religions that were dour and austere. Others encountered faiths that were abstract and theoretical. But the envoys who had investigated Christianity in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople reported finding a faith characterized by such transcendent beauty that they did not know if they were in heaven or on earth.
Then we went to Constantinople and they led us to the place where
they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven
or earth, for on earth there is no such vision nor beauty, and we do
not know how to describe it; we only know that God dwells among
men. We cannot forget that beauty.
Upon receiving the reports from the Constantinople delegation of the unearthly beauty they had witnessed in Christian worship, Prince Vladimir adopted Christianity as the new faith for the Russian people. What impressed the envoys and persuaded Prince Vladimir to embrace Christianity was not its apologetics or ethics, but its aesthetics – its beauty. Thus we might say it was beauty that bought
salvation to the Russian people.” (Brian Zahnd, Beauty Will Save the World)
When you consider how you came to Christ, what role, if any, did “beauty” play in wooing you to become a Christian?
2. Read Psalm 27:1, 4. What do you think David means when he talks about “gazing upon the beauty of the Lord”? What role does contemplating the Lord’s beauty play in your own experience of worship?
3. Respond to the two quotes below:
“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words – to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
What role does this yearning for beauty play in your own life? In the life of your non-Christian friends and co-workers? How can such common human yearning act as an open window, or a catalyst, for drawing people to a Beautiful Savior?
“Our task is not to protest the world into a certain moral conformity, but to attract the world to the saving beauty of Christ. We do this best, not by protest or political action, but by enacting a beautiful presence within the world. The Western church has had a four-century experiment with viewing salvation in a scientific and mechanistic manner, presenting it as a plan, system, or formula. It would be much better if we would return to viewing salvation as a song we sing.” (Brian Zahnd, Beauty Will Save the World)
Do you agree or disagree? Do you view salvation as “a song you sing”? If so, how so? How exactly can the Church enact a beautiful presence in the midst of an often ugly and hostile world? Give some actual examples.
4. Even though we are all attracted to beauty (we desire it, we admire it, we recognize it when we see it!), it can also be quite subjective (cf. the popular expression, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!”). Where do most people get their definition, or idea, of beauty in our post-modern, consumerist culture, and why is this so potentially damaging and dangerous?
5. What do we learn from the Bible about how God views and defines beauty? Read and discuss the following scriptures:
· Genesis 1 - Note that when the text repeatedly says, “And God saw that it was good” (Hebrew, tov), the word, tov, can also be translated, “beautiful”: “God saw that it was beautiful!”
· Ecclesiastes 3:11-14
· Psalm 139:13-18 (The world’s definition of beauty is designed to create dissatisfaction with self and forms an ideal that is unattainable; what does this passage teach us about the way God created us and how he views us?)
· Proverbs 31:30; 1 Peter 3:3-4; 1 Samuel 16:6-7
· 2 Corinthians 3:18
6. The Christian missionary, Frank Laubach, once wrote in his prayer journal: “God, what is man’s best gift to mankind? To be beautiful of soul and then let people see into your soul.” What does God see when he looks past all the nice clothes, hair-cuts, and makeup right into your soul? Pray for one another that you might reflect the radiant beauty of our Lord Jesus to others this week (2 Cor 3:18).