the beholder's eye
Beautiful in Its Time, by R.C. Sproul Jr.
Reviewed by Rick Saenz

In Philippians 4:8, Paul instructs us as follows: "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." Have you ever noticed that, to the modern evangelical mind, one of these things is not like the others? Most of us would be comfortable discussing the objective merits of a thing with respect to its truth, nobility, justice, or purity. But loveliness? Isn't the beauty of a thing a matter of taste, something found in the beholder's eye rather than the object itself?

How is it that we can be staunch in our defense of objective standards when it comes to truth and goodness, and at the same time melt into a gooey postmodernist relativism when confronting matters of beauty? The answer is simple enough: we're lazy. Our aesthetic judgment is childish and uninformed, and we not only don't want to invest any effort in improving the situation, we don't want to be cornered into defending our bad taste. And so we enter into that gentlemen's agreement (or, more accurately, that devil's bargain) that makes postmodern relativism so popular—you agree not to point out that my beliefs are deficient by some objective standard, and I'll be glad to return the favor.

But is it a favor? Rather than having achieved some sort of uneasy peace by striving not to be judgmental about the tastes of others, we have set the stage for a modern-day Mongol invasion, with a few still trying to man the gates against the barbarian hordes (e.g. the worship wars), and the rest forgetting that acquiescence is not peace.

It's true enough that beauty is a scary thing to look at closely. Beauty has a power to move us in ways that truth and goodness cannot. And unlike truth and goodness, there is not much available that qualifies as systematized biblical aesthetics; beauty does not yield many of its secrets to the sort of analytical tools we are accustomed to employing in the search for a deeper understanding of God and His creation. But it hasn't always been this way—as aesthetically ignorant as it may be today, the church has historically had a deep and reverent understanding of beauty, and it is important that we work to reclaim that understanding.

In his latest Bible study, Beautiful in its Time, R.C. sets aside his usual reluctance to tread on the tender feelings of the weaker brother and shows his listeners that, yes, there is an objective standard of beauty, and our own undeveloped taste may not measure up to it. The Bible really does tell us what is beautiful and what is not, and we need to begin the long and difficult (and rewarding) work of bringing our understanding into line with God's standards. This seven-part study, available from Draught Horse Press, is a good place to begin.

Clinch Mountain Culture
The Carter Fold, Hiltons, Va.
Reviewed by Jonathan Daugherty

Our little part of the country, right here, is well known for it's rich musical heritage. As the Scotch-Irish immigrants settled in the middle and southern Appalachian Mountains they brought with them their musical traditions. It was from this region of the country that much of the music which has come to be known as American came. Most of the music, which is distinctly American, has roots in this region. And it is here that one can still hear the distinctly Scotch and Irish folk roots of American folk music. It follows that the Mountain Empire region is one of the best places in the Middle/Southern Appalachians to regularly hear live acoustic mountain music. Such venues include the Floyd Country Store in Floyd, Virginia, the Down Home Pickin' Parlor in Johnson City, Tennessee, and The Carter Fold in Hiltons, Virginia.

In 1927, The Carter Family—A.P., his wife Sara, and his sister-in-law, Maybelle—auditioned and recorded for the RCA Victor record company in Bristol and became one of the first recorded country music groups. Then in 1974, Janette Carter, A.P. and Sara's daughter, began hosting live music in the old grocery store which A.P. Carter used to run in the 1940s. The audience has since outgrown the old store, and now Janette hosts the shows in a rustic barn-like theatre next to A.P.'s old store. The Carter Fold, or just "The Fold" to the locals, features live bluegrass and mountain music every Saturday evening.

The music starts at 7:30, but you may have to get there about 6:30 most Saturdays, in order to get seats in the center section. The center section seats are retired school bus seats, and we all know this is the best job these chairs have ever had. The side sections are not bad seats. In fact, for a family with young children, they are probably the preferred. There really is hardly a seat in the whole house without an excellent view of the performance. The price is right, too. The admission cost is affordable even for most large families.

In an unusually unpretentious setting, the Carter Fold presents the very best representatives of old-time mountain string band music. This is generally pre-modern music. This is traditional fiddle and banjo music, ballads and dance tunes. This is local mountain culture.

The Fold is not a place you visit once; it is a place you keep coming back to. It is one of the last places where you can hear distinct regional styles. And it's going to take some time. In this context, region means a certain mountain or hollow. This is a place where they don't care how they do it in Texas. This is music that was passed from and to people who never got very far from home. There are always friends and neighbors at the Carter Fold. So, take a break, and put your hoe down. It's time you came back to the Fold.