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.