Just What Is Captivating?

Writer Agnieszka Tennant, a self-described feminist, doesn’t like the Eldredge book on women, Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul. She says it’s simplistic. The gist of the book, she believes, is the stuff of little girl dreams: “Every woman longs for three things: to be swept up into a romance, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to be the Beauty of the story.” Ms. Tennant writes:

But there’s so much more. Beauty draws blood to the heart and speeds up the pulse; sometimes it evokes repentance. I wish more Christians were comfortable with its pull. Too often, beauty raptures us so forcibly that we fear it will lead to temptation. So we avert our eyes. What if we turned our ecstasy into worship?

I don’t get it. Yes, beauty can be enrapturing, and since we’re talking about feminine beauty, not the gorgeous melodies of Dvorak’s New World Symphony or the rich landscapes of Albert Bierstadt, I will say that my wife is simply enchanting. Captivating, even. For more common ground on profound female beauty, I remember feeling quite moved by a scene with Grace Kelly in the middle of Rear Window, and I remember thinking I might jump through the screen to rescue a vulnerable Ingrid Bergman in Notorious. Call me impressionable, but I was captivated by them for a time.

But I don’t think I get the point of Ms. Tennant assertion about worship or about a deeper beauty than advocated in Captivating. What do you think?

0 thoughts on “Just What Is Captivating?”

  1. I’m not sure that the attraction of physical beauty can be translated to worship. Thanking heaven for pretty girls may be more to the point.

  2. I thought of that too, but that doesn’t seem like a deep enough concept to be what she’s describing, and even though there is a beauty of character, thanking heaven of strong people doesn’t make sense to me in this context either.

  3. I found your blog through “Wittingshire”.

    It sounds like you’ve hit the nail on the head: she IS talking about aesthetic beauty (surely?), and simply forgot the context in which she was writing.

    I think.

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