God's Beauty A Call to Justice

This book is a fine introduction to the often overlooked but powerful role beauty plays in evoking and sustaining the work of justice. Noting that the moral life consists of far more than the minimal obligations we may feel duty bound to fulfill, McCormick explores how it is that the gracious experience of beauty can decenter us. His vivid portrayals of how God is drawing all the world toward the peaceful pleasures of life together enable the reader to feel the pull of beauty toward what is good. This book delineates how it is that this vision of treasured community sparks in those who enjoy it a deep moral desire for the welfare of all, delight in human diversity, and pleasure in the care of creation.

Classically, the path to God has been threefold, seeking God in the true, the good, and the beautiful. It is the third way that is the most neglected by contemporary theology, especially by moral theologians. In this book Pat McCormick offers his insightful take on the moral life via the way of beauty, illuminating a creative and distinctive path for ethical reflection. McCormick is a scholar of substance who writes with flair.

God's Beauty is a breakthrough book. McCormick's creativity moves us from the drudgery of duty and obligation to show us the joy and liberation that emerges when we let beauty ground our ethics. The book creatively mines the Scriptures and tradition to discover God as the lure of beauty who transforms how we experience justice, poverty, immigrants, and our world. It's a breath of fresh air for those interested in ethics.

God's Beauty is a thoughtful and very eloquent book, particularly in its criticisms. . . .a book with profound significance for many areas of ethical thought.