In the March/April edition of Touchstone Magazine, I explored how the concept of “gratuitous beauty” offers a chance to push back against the Marxist invasion of humanities’ departments happening throughout America’s college campuses. Although the article is only available for subscribers, there is a special link for public viewing below.
In the article I suggest that enjoying natural beauty for its own sake, and not just for what it can do for us, helps inculcate in us the fundamental truth that the most worthwhile things in life are valuable for what they are in themselves, and not mere instruments to pragmatic ends. The very gratuitousness of beauty underscores that the most basic goods cannot be measured within a purely immanent and temporal frame. Ultimately, this trains our hearts for union with God, who is to be adored for what he is in himself, and not merely because of what he can do for us.
Link to whole article: