Beguiled By Beauty (Wendy Farley)-- A Review
BEGUILED BY BEAUTY: Cultivating a Life of Contemplation and Compassion. By Wendy Farley. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2020. Xv + 196 pages.
Supposedly
beauty is skin deep, but perhaps that’s not completely true. It might be true
of prettiness, but not beauty. Beauty can take many different forms. Sometimes beauty
isn't pretty. It all depends on our definitions. While we often judge beauty by
externals, it can be and often is more internal external. The question then is,
how do we encounter beauty? Or better yet, how might we be "beguiled by beauty”?
Wendy Farley takes up that question and as the subtitle to the book reveals,
the way toward being “beguiled by beauty” involves “cultivating a life of contemplation
and compassion.”
Wendy Farley
is the director of the Program in Christian Spirituality and Rice Family
Professor of Spirituality in the Graduate School of Theology at the University
of Redlands (California). Before going to the University of Redlands in
southern California, she was a professor of theology at Emory University. She
has authored a number of books, both on theology and spirituality. She brings
into the conversation her expertise in theology, spirituality, and her
experiences not only with Christianity but with Buddhism and yoga.
Although
Beguiled by Beauty speaks about the contemplative life, it isn't a
how-to book. Except for the final chapter, which offers a brief introduction to
some of the ways in which one can engage in the contemplative life, it is more
an argument for finding ways of living a contemplative life than instructions
on how to do it. In writing this call to pursue the contemplative life, Farley
acknowledges that many descriptions of this life require the luxury of time and
space to devote to spiritual practices. What she seeks to offer here is not a
monk's life, but a way of encountering the beauty of God and creation in the
midst of normal life.
Farley
speaks for many of us when she writes that "I thirsted for the Beloved and
longed to deepen and purify capacities for courage and compassion. But my
dedication to being a mother and teacher entangled with the lives of my family
and friends, my community and nation, made a contemplative way of life
difficult to cultivate" (pp. xii-xiii). In other words, she understands that
most of us live busy lives that make it difficult to find time and space to
engage in the contemplative life, so she proposes here something that "is
a way to inhabit ordinary life." (p. xiii). Therefore, in Beguiled by
Beauty, Farley introduces us to forms of the contemplative life lived in
the context of ordinary life. She draws on Christian spirituality as well as
other forms of spirituality such as Buddhism and Yoga. While she engages with
traditions other than Christianity to enrich the practice, she wants us to know
that contemplative practices have deep roots within Christianity.
The importance
of engaging in contemplative practice, as she understands it, even if only for
a few moments at a time is that it opens up a person to the work of the Spirit.
She wants us to understand that this is especially important as we seek to live
in what have become dangerous times. She notes in the opening chapter of the
book that she approaches this conversation from the perspective of beauty. This
is why: "Without remembering beauty, one might think of spirituality more
in terms of beliefs or emptying the mind or ascetical disciplines. We might
think of spirit disconnected from the body, art, and nature. But beauty is the
threshold to Divine Goodness and a door into radical compassion." (p. 16).
Why
engage in the contemplative life, whatever that involves? The answer is that
"we are made for the beloved" (ch. 2). God desires intimacy with us
and seeks it. That is why we can and must practice forms of contemplation. To
do otherwise is to forget who we are and relegate God to being an appendage to
our identities. This second chapter invites us to consider the nature of our
relationship with God, with the "Divine Beloved." From the
conversation about being made for the Beloved, we turn to a chapter on
"awakening to the beauty." She reminds us that the Reformers were
suspicious of beauty, which is why they stripped the church of art and
decoration. But beauty is important. It reveals something about the Beloved. It
is, she writes, "the most vivid and immediate expression of the Good"
(p. 41). Helpfully she reveals that beauty leads to compassion and justice. It’s
not a competitor.
She
offers a chapter on contemplative practice, though it's not a how-to manual. It
is more an argument for why contemplative practices are necessary. She does,
however, introduce us to forms of prayer that can draw us into the beauty of
the Beloved. She speaks of the value of religious experience and the discipline
of regular practice. The point is taking stock of our inner being in
conversation with God. Regarding finding time, she suggests setting the bar
low, so it is reachable!
In
chapter 5 Farley speaks of contemplative dispositions. In this chapter, she
speaks of qualities of life, such as gentleness and nonjudgment (that doesn't
mean we don't have opinions or live in a state of ethical neutrality). She
writes that "nonjudgment is primarily a stance of openness toward what one
encounters. When we encounter someone or something, what we experience is
dominated by our pre-established categories and emotional valences." (p.
84). So, the point is encountering the whole person and not just one part.
Other qualities include peacefulness and wonder and adventure.
We move
on in chapter 6 to a conversation about the mind and paying attention to it so
we can cultivate habits that "support our aspirations" (p. 97). In
doing this we guard our hearts. In this chapter, we are introduced to
conversations about truth, gratitude, compassion, and joy, as well as
generosity. It is here that Farley brings into the conversation the concept of
intercessory prayer. If chapter 6 focuses on the mind, chapter seven speaks of
the heart. This is a conversation about the transformation of the person so
that we might experience joy and compassion. I found the section of this
chapter on suffering, very insightful. She reminds us that we all suffer in
different ways, though not all suffering is the same. In the context of
contemplation, we can acknowledge suffering for what it is. We should not
pursue it, but also not flee it. In that, we can find joy. It is here that she
speaks of the feminine divine, addressing the fact that Christianity has
emphasized masculine understandings of God, but by contemplating the feminine
divine and drawing from feminine images of God, we can guard against toxic
theology.
It is
only after we move through these conversations about the value and importance
of the contemplative life that focuses on the beauty of God and God's creation,
that we get to actual practices, such as yoga, breath prayers, and other forms
of practice. Farley points out that many resources can guide such practice. Her
point is getting us to that point that we can engage in the practices that draw
us into a relationship with God and contributes to compassion for others. While
the how-to manuals have their place, quite often we need a book like Beguiledby Beauty to help us understand the value of such a life-path. Then, we are
in a position to learn particular practices, especially when we live busy and
full lives. Knowing that it’s possible to practice the contemplative life in
the context of ordinary life is helpful. Knowing that this life practice also
puts us in a position to be compassionate and committed to justice is even more
important. In her concluding paragraph, Wendy Farley makes this poignant point:
“As we struggle for justice and for courage, contemplative practice weaves
heaven and earth, stitch by stitch, breath by breath, tragedy by tragedy, kindness
by kindness. It is the joy and danger of falling in love with the world even in
the darkest moments. It is the practice of the present moment, discovering the
Beloved in all things” (p. 158). This is reason enough to find ways of being in
touch with God for the good of all.
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