### The three transcendentals and *imago dei* Medieval scholastic theology inherited the notions of [transcendentals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendentals) from Greek metaphysics. CCC 41, interpreting [Wis 13:5](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Wisdom%2013%3A5&version=NRSVCE) , teaches that our soul has the ability to perceive God through the 3 transcendentals Truth, Goodness and Beauty in created things **by resemblance**, because our soul has *imago dei* stamped on it: > All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures - their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can name God by taking his creatures" perfections as our starting point, "for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator". A [*Reasons to Believe* article](https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/reflections/the-3-transcendentals-truth-goodness-beauty) quoted Stephen R. Turley saying that the 3 transcendentals to provide **divine meaning to 3 capacities**: > Truth, goodness, and beauty are cosmic values that communicate divine meaning to the **intellectual**, **moral**, and **aesthetic** capacities of the human soul, which brings a balance in the soul, which, in turn, harmonizes the human person with divine meaning and purpose of the cosmos, which was considered the prerequisite to human flourishing. The same article quoted Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft who connects the 3 transcendentals to **created things**: > When God created, he imbued the cosmos with truth, goodness, and beauty. Philosopher Peter Kreeft says: “Everything that exists is in some way true, good, and beautiful.” and continues to associate the 3 transcendentals to **3 verbs** "know", "desire", and "love": > And humans via the imago Dei (image of God) are able **to *know* the truth, *desire* the good, and *love* the beautiful**. The fall of humankind into sin disordered man’s natural capacities but through the redemption found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ humans are brought back into a right relationship with God and with these revealed values. ### My question It seems that the last 2 pairings are not technically consistent. Shouldn't it be: 1. ***Know* Truth** by our **reason** (because by **intellectual** activity in our mind we grasp & form concepts and we reason discursively) 2. ***Love* Goodness** by our **will** (because inspired by divine Love we *ACTIVELY resolve* to love others, usually with great effort unless aided by virtues, in the sphere of Christian **morality**, i.e. love = "willing the good of the other") 3. ***Desire* Beauty** by our **passion** (because our **aesthetic** sensibilities is *PASSIVELY drawn* to all things beautiful or by *being led* to them by simply perceiving or immersing ourselves in them with little effort) I am seeking a Catholic answer linking Catholic psychology to Catholic doctrine of God. I hope that CCC, an encyclical, St. Thomas Aquinas, or a post Vatican II theologian says something about it. ### P.S. It seems there are other meanings at play here, such as "love" as attraction ("love" is such a complex multivalent word!) or "good" to mean how we desire created goods (such as wealth, honor, food, sex, etc.) we aim to possess to be happy. I'm simply using that article as a motivating resource to ask this question. It's important for the answer to this question to get those multiple meanings of the words in order, refined within the discipline of Catholic psychology, so we can focus on the right terminologies for the 3 faculties of our soul (covered heavily in St. Thomas's *Summa*) and how they connect to the 3 transcendentals in Catholic theology.

Here I am talking about Beauty as we perceive it either in nature or culture (i.e., not the physical beauty of individual human beings). Two separate thoughts have prompted this question: firstly, reading Augustine in his *Confessions* defining evil as a lack of good, since God would not have created positive evil. I wondered if this could be extended to things which seem ugly or repulsive: how are we to understand our own aversion to individual parts of divine creation? The second thought is that I am most often prompted to think of God and almost intuitively believe in Him when I behold beauty - in both nature and products of human culture. Accepting that this is a common human experience, is there a moral Christian imperative to cultivate beauty, as an aid to faith in God? Anyway, I wondered if there existed some official position on this, in any Christian denomination. I suppose it risks shading over into a sort of Nietzschean worship of the superman, or simply into idolatry.