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Math, Art, Justice & Mercy

Grace, we know, does not obliterate nature but perfects it. Thus St. Thomas Aquinas was never going to be a St. Francis. The native gifts each had were not removed upon conversion and substituted with something else. Given that assumption I'm pondering the claim that saints come in basically two varieties. To grossly simplify things - for that's what blogs are for -

if you are left-brained, cooly rational and mathematically-inclined you will like:

Pascal
St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Jerome
St. Dominic
Justice

If you are right-brained, artistic, romantic you will like:

St. Francis
St. Therese of the Litte Flower
St. Augustine
Hans von Balthasar
Mercy

NOTE: This is only my perception of the popular perception of these saints, not the reality, since most saints cannot be put into boxes.

The justice & mercy attributes ought to be fleshed out a bit. One of the characteristics of those who have a left-brain emphasis is that they can often arrive at solutions to problems through rationally trying all alternatives. That is why computers are good at chess but not novel-writing: they can, by their own power, computationally exercise all options and choose the best. Artists and writers, by contrast, speak so often of "inspiration" and of "being a conduit" that it's almost a cliche. You hear of "writer's block" but rarely of "mathematician's block".

Now that's not to say that inspiration isn't required in math. Einstein obviously wasn't just a pretty face rationally-speaking but also extremely creative in thinking outside the box. But for those with more prosaic gifts the mediocre math major might think a solution is something they come up, whereas those with mediocre skills in art tend to think that their notion of a solution - i.e. beauty -is something given to them, if given at all.

So, the proposal here is that if you tend to see success come through your personal effort, you will emphasize justice. If you tend to see success come through something outside of you - even, say luck? - you will emphasize mercy.

This is shown somewhat in gender. To play in gross generalizations, men tend to be better at math and more coldly rationalistic. They vote conservative. They like justice (look at the popularity of Westerns). Women tend to be more Beethoven than Mozart. They vote more liberal. They are more interested in love and the personal (look at the popularity of chick flicks).

But did we not also see this played out on a grand scale in Western Civilization? During the 17th & 18th centuries Deism and Jansenism were popular, which viewed God as either a watchmaker who simply set things in motion and then let things go without intervention or as the harsh Judge. It was an era of science, and there is precious little mercy in this conception. The reaction came swift in the artistic Romantic era, surely an overreaction, but by the 19th century sentiment and warmth were king. One need only look at the art produced - Bouguereau's angels were anything but Deist or Jansenist.

Though what is a seeming harsh solution for the City of Man - justice in order to keep society running (i.e. we jail criminals, sometimes for life) - is perhaps too often seen as the antidote for the City of God, even though God's Mercy is what makes Him different, the literal meaning of Holy.

What of those who have a foot in both camps, who have both right-brain and left-brain tendencies? I think it makes for some unpredictability and a lot of fence-sitting. Steven Riddle maybe?

Update: excellent point from Steven Riddle:

Human beings are not remarkably integrated creatures, I do think each person has marked tendencies in one direction or another [justice or mercy]. Mine, as you have noted does tend to overemphasize mercy, while not discounting justice. This, I think, is because I rely upon my vision of that Mercy to sustain any hope whatsoever. If I truly got what I have merited, I would be in a very sorry place.

Update 2: and another from Neil:

I wonder if I can reframe this discussion, though. I want to look at a distinction that the (then) Dominican Otto Hermann Pesch made between Luther and Aquinas...The Lutheran ecumenist Michael Root has nicely summarized Pesch's distinction - "Luther speaks out the situation of the justified sinner, standing before the judgment and mercy of God," while, for Aquinas, "The self which speaks in theology, however, is the self which is caught up beyond itself into the wisdom fo God and so is able to speak of the divine order, the causes, by which all things are." Naturally, then, we tend to place St Thomas in the "justice" category and Luther is definitely in the "mercy" category. But this might really be because of their difference in perspective - Luther speaks as the justified sinner, St Thomas speaks as the self participating in divine wisdom. A matter, we might want to say, borrowing the language of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, of "language, theological elaboration, and emphasis."