Brian Nixon is a writer, artist, musician, and educator. He’s a graduate of California State University, Stanislaus (BA), Veritas Seminary (MA), and is a Fellow at Oxford Graduate School (D.Phil.).
A quick word about Brian Nixon. He is a staff pastor at Calvary Albuquerque, a former rock band member in southern California, and longtime friend and writer at Assist News. Brian enjoys writing about all things arts-related and especially the three words known in philosophy as the transcendentals — truth, beauty, and goodness. The transcendentals have been part of human existence for thousands of years as the written records indicate; all cultures have dealt with them on one level or another. In the West, Plato, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Aristotle all had something to say about the transcendentals. During the first century, Paul of Tarsus interwove the transcendentals in a broader context, best portrayed in his letter to the Philippians, chapter 4:8.
In the Middle Ages thinkers such as Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Augustine weighed in on the areas. And Thomas Aquinas helped broaden our understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness as it relates to theology. But in our contemporary world, the transcendentals have been separated. As an example, the truth has been relegated to the sciences, beauty to the arts, and goodness to religion. But historically, they are not separate entities, but one, all leading back to metaphysical principles, ontology and being. Generally, humanity sought the transcendentals as a means to understand and appreciate life, asking what is true, how is something beautiful, and what does it mean to live a good life.
To learn more, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Nixon
