Criticism: Mormon aesthetics and the corporeality of God

In his Times & Seasons post The Metaphysics of Mormon Art, Nate Oman writes:

"Like the medievals we believe in a divine order and a creator god. Yet our god has a different metaphysical relationship to the world. Rather than standing as its ontological ground, he – like us – is an actor in a pre-existing ontological frame. Hence the divine order of the world reflects God’s creative organization of 'matter unorganized,' matter which in some sense resists his organizing power. With the moderns, we have a powerful individualistic streak in our metaphysics. We believe in intelligences co-eternal with God. Indeed, one might think of the philosophical anthropology of Mormonism as a kind of modernism on steroids. What are we to make artistically and aesthetically of this collidiscope of metaphysical concepts. It seems to me that we problematize both the all-encompassing symbolic ordering of the medieval aesthetic, as well as the heroic individualism of the moderns."

Mormon aesthetics is a pet topic of mine, and I've begun to do some reading in aesthetics. However, first let me say that I have almost no grounding in philsophy, and my knowledge of aesthetics is sparse. Therefore my use of terms will most likely be completely wrong, my phrasings careless.

Nate takes about the philosophical anthropology of Mormonism and especially the co-eternal-ness of intelligences with God. I'd like to come at this from a slightly different tack -- the corporeality of God the father and the perfectability/possible exaltation of his children.

In Mormonism, God has a physical form -- a body. He is also perfect. We (with due recognition that there are varying opinions on the specifics of this) too can become perfect. What's more we become exalted with our bodies. Our physical forms are not discarded, but instead 'glorified.'

This suggests to me that -- in terms of beauty and form -- Mormon aesthetics can't be one of ideals, of perfect forms, but rather diverse perfect and perfectable forms.

In addition, Both God the father and the son, aesthetic qualities are not based on beauty, but glory. And that glory is a manifestation of his virtue, power, knowledge, etc.

For example, notice the description of Christ in D&C 110:1-10:

"2. We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber.

"3. His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters..."

Or the words from Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision:

"16. ...I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

"17. It no sooner appeared than I found myself adelivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. ..." [ JS-H: 17-18]

These two passages lead me to believe that if anything Mormon aesthetics is more tied into the sublime than beauty, but that leads me to neo-Romanticism and Kant, and I'll leave all that for later.

I'm not exactly sure what the practical repercussions of this idea are. Should Mormon artists bring back the halo to represent glory and virtue? [not that it has ever left -- see the glow of light in some of the work of Greg Olsen and other art that has appeared in the Ensign].

I do think, however, that a few things follow from a Mormon aesthetics that takes this particular metaphysics into account:

1. Mormon artists and critics are in a position to critique the modern (Greek?) version of physical perfectability and the drive for bodily beauty.

2. The fact that we all look different and yet are perfectable/exaltable, can all receive (and radiate) glory, means that diversity in form and types of beauty should be a priority for, a part of, a keystone of the Mormon canon.

3. Our belief that Lucifer was 'beautiful' -- was at one time a 'son of morning' (and one of us) and filled with glory -- suggests that Mormon art should explore how virtue is lost and attained and how aesthetics can be a tool for joy, for distraction, for pleasure, for damnation, for expression of awe.