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Once, people had viewed coh the lens of faith Now it seeh the lens of co
their lives to live in accordance with their faith, they went “church shopping” to find a faith that fit their lifestyle So had been lost, Paul believed, yet he realized there was really no way to turn back the clock
Mike had stirred up so rowth mission that it would have been foolish of Paul to try to squelch it He certainly did not question Mike’s intentions or his devotion to the church Yet the board president was unyielding in his opinions, and it was hard to convince hi that could not be quantified At issue today was the cru church steeple, which had beco it properly would cost 30,000, and Mike was in favor of tearing the old thing down
“People don’t choose a church because of what the building looks like,” Mike said “They’re not attracted by steeples They come because they see ads or billboards What is important is what is inside The church could be in an old car lot Advertising is where we need to spend our row”
Paul was having a hard tiument He had not received a formal education in the finer points of church architecture and design He only knew that there were sacred places, and they spoke a language he understood without words, beyond intellect There were places that invited contemplation and places that called for activity and involvea churches with their rock music, headset microphones, and video screens were as far from his sense of a sacred place as the mind could travel A church should be a departure from the outside world of constant distraction and stimulation, not an imitation of it
The little white wooden churches with their towering steeples were created for simple people Farmers, laborers, and artisans could enjoy a humbler version of the impressive medieval structures that were artists’ visions of what heaven ular roof pointed to heaven and also represented the three sides of the trinity Two spaces off the sides of the sanctuary jutted out and created a cross shape When a worshiper took coh the nave and approached the altar up three steps—the nuh vaulted arch represented heaven All the time they were surrounded by the cross,that the path to heaven was through Christ’s sacrifice, his death and rebirth
“There is an entire syn,” Paul said “If you destroy part of the design, you’re changing the language If you take one word out of a sentence, it changes the whole ”
“Co a church if it has no steeple The steeple is nice, but it’s not necessary”
“No, it’s not necessary But that doesn’t mean it’s not important”
Paul knew that there was a value in architecture, in arts, in beautiful things Why do those things ument for architecture is with poetry, and people who don’t care for art are ie as well You either understand it in your soul or you don’t Trying to explain the value of aesthetics to Mike was like trying to explain the color blue to someone who’d been blind from birth
Paul had brought along an illustrated art book, hoping he would find so in it to helpand should be a priority He flipped through pages of classical devotional art to find an ie to demonstrate the clear connection between aesthetics and worship As he turned the pages, he ca Woman in Profile by Sandro Botticelli
He stopped flipping He recognized that face It was his angel It was not an exact copy, but the rese the profile, the familiar line of her nose, the curl of her lips Was it possible that he had seen an actualon different forreat works of art as she went? No, that was ridiculous He had shaken hands with a flesh-and-blood man
“I don’t think we’re going to ress on this issue today,” Mike said “Let’s plan a date for our next ”
The eneral consensus seeroould bring in new pledges, and that when the pledges increased, they could discuss fixing the steeple If they didn’t grow enough, fast enough, to increase their income before the steeple rotted away, it would have to come down Paul vowed to himself that he would write a sermon, or a series of serrand tradition of the old cathedrals, the metaphors built into church architecture, the sacred value of places, the “angels in the architecture,” as Paul Sih inspiration to be persuasive
He went back to his office, shut the door, and stared at the Botticelli painting Paul thought maybe he understood what he had responded to when he confused the young reat works of classical art It was an archetype for an ideal of beauty that was neither nizing archetypal beauty when you see it He had only confused a sense of recognition for a feeling of desire