'she has done a beautiful deed for me'

in thinking about the beauty of the soul -moral beauty, beautiful lives, living beautifully- perhaps we can gain some insight by thinking about specific actions which strike us as expressing or exemplifying some kind of beauty.

there are certain human actions which, in virtue of their moral or spiritual goodness, strike us as beautiful. that is, they may not always appear to us as beautiful, but when they do appear to us in their fullness -when we really see them and are moved by them- then the word we reach for, if we reach for a word at all, is 'beautiful.' as examples of this, consider the stories of the prodigal son and the good samaritan. in my experience, the atonement is also a paradigm instance of this kind of beauty.

to describe such actions as 'the right thing to do' or even 'virtuous' somehow seems to miss something about the power and attractiveness of these actions. and yet, in seeing these actions as beautiful, part of what i feel is a deep sense that acting in this way is right, is proper, is an expression of the true way to live as a human being. also, it is as if the beauty of the action is connected to something else -something beyond itself, something abiding and real.

i am inclined to say that the beauty of such actions cannot be understood except in terms of the τελος of a human life. that is, if you try to understand what makes them beautiful without making reference to the end of a human life -and hence to what it means to live well- then you won't get very far. put another way, it is in virtue of their virtue that such acts are beautiful. we might say, then, that the kind of beauty they have is moral beauty.

at the same time, however, it seems that not all virtuous acts strike us as beautiful in the same way. perhaps all virtuous activity partakes of the καλον (beautiful/fine/noble), but perhaps not in an equal way. for instance, we take moderation to be a virtue, but there seems to be little that is especially beautiful about the moderate person. it may be good to have an appropriate desire for food and drink, but is not taking the second piece of cake a beautiful thing?

my intuition is that beautiful actions tend to be especially associated with: 1) self-sacrifice, or courage, and 2) reconciliation, or forgiveness. there is something moving, something beautiful, about a person who goes to great risk for others -e.g. the central characters in 'hotel rwanda' or 'schindler's list. there is something similarly beautiful about reconciliation and forgiveness -e.g. the father's acceptance of the prodigal son.

perhaps both of these things are beautiful because they are connected to love, and to an especially great love.

both self-sacrifice/courage and reconciliation/forgiveness seem to involve something excessive, something extraordinary. there is a kind of lavishness to them. in this sense, they are connected to being great-souled, and to generosity. i am not sure exactly what this lavishness consists in: perhaps the lack of concern for oneself, perhaps the single-minded focus on what is of most value.

this kind of lavishness seems to be involved when jesus is annointed by the woman at bethany (mark 14:3-9) what the woman has done seems like an impractical waste to the onlookers; jesus understands her action to have been done out of great concern for himself; and he calls her action beautiful (καλον εργον).

maybe, though, this way of thinking runs the risk of putting too much weight on 'extraordinary' actions. it seems that 'mundane' things can also be beautiful, and that some actions are even beautiful because they are so 'ordinary' -e.g. an evening walk between a couple that has been married for 40 years, and who has taken an evening walk together for as long as they can remember.

also, i don't want to identify beautiful actions with heroic actions, though there does seem to be some important connection. actions or expressions can be beautiful without being what we would call heroic. two examples: listening and laughing.