The Way of Beauty: Can it lead people to God?

Published: 2006-03-31

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Poets and philosophers have long pondered the mysterious nature of beauty: Is beauty only what pleases or teases the eye of the beholder? Or does a more universal beauty exist that can attract people of all ages and cultures? And what about the wilting or wrinkling demise of physical beauty? Isn't there perhaps something more enduring that offers a glimpse of the divine? Just as Socrates and other esteemed Greek intellectuals gathered one day more than 2,000 years ago to discuss beauty and love, another kind of symposium was held in the Vatican March 27-28 when more than 40 cardinals, bishops, religious and lay experts in culture revisited these perennial questions. Participants in the Pontifical Council for Culture plenary assembly met to discuss the "Via Pulchritudinis" -- a not so beautiful-sounding Latin phrase for the "The Way of Beauty" and how it could become a "Privileged Pathway for Evangelization and Dialogue."

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