The Charles Gore Lecture 2018: Truth and Beauty
Janet Soskice
61.39
8 March 2018
11 November 2025
Speaker: Professor Janet Soskice
Chair: The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster
In classical Christian teaching God is not only beautiful but Beauty itself, not only truthful but Truth itself, not only good but Goodness itself. What can this mean in a consumerist world where ‘truth’ is contested, ‘goodness’ deemed prissy, and ‘beauty’ discussed mainly in terms of revolutionary new beauty products? Do we, in the age of Instagram, hear the adage ‘beauty is only skin deep’ not as a warning but as a stipulation - beauty is only appearance and appearance is all there is? If so, what can any of this have to do with truth’ or for that matter with God, and how do we avoid swindling ourselves out of that conviction that we are made to seek the truth, to behold beauty and to become beautiful - made to be, not only loved, but lovely?
Recorded on Tuesday 27th February, at 6.30pm in the Nave, Westminster Abbey