Blackwell Reference Online

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The work of art is the object seen sub specie aeternitatis; and the good life is the world seen sub specie aeternitatis. This is the connection between art and ethics. WittgensteinOur local Presbyterian church sings the doxology as the deacons bring forward the collection, acknowledging that God has given far more to us – “all blessings” – than we can ever give back. We sing the Gloria Patri after confessing our sins and hearing the absolution, acknowledging the greatest divine gift of all: forgiveness, together with the new share in the triune life that ensues. These and other musical offerings enhance the quality of our worship. But how? Wittgenstein's insight into what connects aesthetics and ethics also forges a tie to worship: praising God in song enables the Church not simply to see things sub specie aeternitatis but to enter the antechamber of heaven, to stand on eternity's very brink.We praise what we prize, just as we worship what we consider worthy. Praises may be said or sung, but singing accomplishes something that saying cannot. First, singing is social, uniting the whole assembly in a harmony that both manifests and constitutes a community. Second, singing is personal, engaging all one's faculties: “singing clearly demonstrates worship – and therefore the divine kingdom and human salvation – to be an affair of the whole person, mind, heart, voice, body” (Wainwright, ... log in or subscribe to read full text