Technometry - Theses 38-47: The Best Known Force of Art (and Theology is a Liberal Art!)

Thesis 1. Art is the idea of eupraxia or good action, methodically delineated by universal rules.

Beginning with thesis 38, Ames focuses on the last part of his definition of art: methodically delineated by universal rules. 

...methodically delineated... Since arts are governing ideas, force is assumed by their governance.  Ames says that the best-known force of art is its delineations.  What is a delineation?  It is an accurate representation, picture, or outline of something.  A map is an example of a delineation of a country.  A biography is a delineation of a character.  Each art has many delineations.  Even though each art is singularly conceived by God, each is unraveled and perceived by us in many different ways.

The representative matter, or delineations, of each art represents the good work of each art "faithfully and without any deceit" (thesis 38).  We can get a clear picture of the arts conceived by God by studying the representative matter.  We can get a good idea of what California is by looking at a map, even though the map is not California itself.

These universal forces of art are called:  (thesis 38)

   Axioms worthy of faith
   Precepts
   Canons or criteria
   Problems
   Theorems
   Phenomena

A modern example of this would be the precepts of the scientific method.  Or take for example the law of gravity - it governs what we do as we do the work of physics, but it isn't physics itself.  It is clear that Puritan teaching on the arts provided the most fertile soil for the growth of modern science.

...by universal...  Ames says that "universal" means "most true, most just, and most wise."  The reason?

These rules, since they have been and are at first in the most true, most just, and most wise God, must be most true, most just, and most wise (i.e., in a word, 'universal').

If a rule isn't completely true, just, and wise, it isn't universal.  According to Peter Ramus, truth, justice, and wisdom are universal:

For the laws forming art [truth, justice, and wisdom] are common to all the arts, and likewise demand that general, homogeneous, and proper precepts be abstracted from singular things. 

There are other rules of art, but they are less universal.  Notice that according to Ames, in a godless world, there can be no truth, justice, or wisdom - and therefore no universal rules for the arts.  Unsurprisingly, progressive modern educators have ditched the liberal arts, denied the existence of truth, perverted the meaning of justice, and given honor to fools.

...rules...  These representative rules of the arts are understood both by God and man, although the type of understanding is different for each.  Thesis 44:

In God this understanding is archetypal, in man it is ectypal.

Archetypal: the original standard
Ectypal: the reproduction

Humans have creative arts, but these are imitative and take God's type as principles.

Ames explains in thesis 46 that because human understanding is gathered from created and governed things which refract the understanding of God, this understanding is called theology.  Theology exists in God, the "creator and governor of all things," and it is archetypal and "God's eternal wisdom," so it is, therefore, an art.

Lee Gibbs, commentary on thesis 45:

The Latin word 'typus' means 'the mark of a blow,' and hence a 'stamp,' 'impression,' 'print,' or 'mark.'  Ames is asserting that God's own understanding is, though in a broken or refracted way, really 'impressed' or 'stamped' on the things created and governed by Him.  And it is from this 'type' of divine understanding impressed on things that man's own understanding of the principles of things is derived.