Modern beauty can be explained by ancient philosophy and illuminated in Christianity, said Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, Italy, yesterday in an address in Dahlgren Chapel.

The talk, entitled “Theology of Beauty: A Way to Unity,” drew from themes discussed in Forte’s recently published book, “The Portal of Beauty: Towards a Theology of Aesthetics.”

Forte noted an ideological shift in 20th-century thought away from utopian ideas towards post-modernism, and, more particularly, fragmentation.

“The ideological utopia advances toward totalitarian thought . but the tendency of the postmodern world is to accept fragments,” he said.

He said he sees religion as a guiding force in finding beauty in this postmodern world.

“The mission of humankind today, tempted by the loss of meaning in the postmodern world, is to rediscover the sense of beauty, the whole in fragment,” Forte explained. “This rediscovery of the way of beauty is manifested in Christian thought.”

Drawing upon the philosophies of St. Augustine and St. Thomas and the works of both Eastern and Slavic thinkers, Forte called for a deeper exploration of the idea of beauty.

“Are things beautiful because they please, or do they please because they are beautiful?” Forte asked.

He noted that St. Thomas focused on the cross and Jesus’ resurrection as a way of illustrating a larger principle.

“Thomas begins not with a formal beauty, but with a scandalous beauty . Jesus’ way of beauty, a great beauty in a small form,” he said. “The spirit is the manifestation of this beauty.”

He also stressed the importance of an Eastern conception of beauty.

“In the history of Western thought, the perspective has been `Cogito ergo sum,’ or `I think, therefore I am.’ In Eastern thought, it is `Cogitor ergo sum,’ [which means] `I am thought of, therefore I am’ . or, in Christianity, `Amor ergo sum,’ [which means] `I am loved, therefore I am,'” he said.

Forte suggested that if people were able to understand the beauty of their actions, they would choose to act in peace.

“Good deeds are beautiful deeds,” he said. “Luminous and harmonious revelations of the spiritual personality.”

Following the lecture, Forte took questions from the audience. When asked about the relation of ethereal beauty to human beauty, Forte described the three levels of human beauty. First, he said, there is the physical beauty, the beauty of “forms . of lines and colors.” Second, the beauty of “relations to others,” and lastly, a sublime “beauty of the spirit.” That” he explained, “is the level of grace.”

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