Most evangelicals understand the importance of absolutes in the realm of morality and would agree that sin is certainly not in the eye of the beholder. Despite the protestations to the contrary emanating from American culture, Christians have by and large stood firm in their conviction, rooted in the immutability of God and His Word, that moral goodness and moral evil are indeed fixed concepts.
Similarly, thinking evangelicals recognize the importance of normative standards in the realm of epistemology. There is such a thing as Absolute Truth, likewise rooted in the fundamental character of God and His Word, and evidenced throughout creation. Human beings, in their own approach to life and interactions with each other, implicitly acknowledge the existence of epistemological absolutes – that the creators of the “X Files” were correct when they proclaimed “The Truth is out there.” Thus belief in normative standards of truth and morality are rooted and anchored in a biblical view of God, and their existence is validated by His creation and the human experience in it.
What, then, of beauty? Christians who correctly stand against relativism in these other crucial areas nevertheless tend to assume a relativistic stance towards beauty…
(An excerpt from the introduction to a doctoral paper in progress in which I am attempting to make a positive case for normative standards of beauty. I thought I’d see if it would generate any discussion. Any thoughts?)