Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth
By Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson
I had read C.S. Lewis' essay "On the Reading of Old Books" and began to seek out more exposure to poets, prophets, and preachers prior to the last two centuries. He said we need their help seeing the characteristic mistakes or blindnesses of our age. They may have their own prejudices but, because we are not of their age, we see these well enough. It's the influence of our own culture's lies that we may not be so aware of.
I enjoyed the rich feast the Reformation and Puritan writers spread; even read some from the classical era. But I had never given much thought to the contribution of the Medieval Christians until I read How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill, and this book that I am reviewing, Angels in the Architecture, by Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson (Presbyterian ministers, journalists, teachers and leaders in the classical education resurgence).
The premise of the book:
The Medieval period is the closest thing we have to a maturing Christian Culture...a vision of normal life...of Christianity enfleshed. Not that this was the culmination, but it was headed in the right direction when silenced by a tyrannical Rome and a blinding Enlightenment. Theirs is a call for Christians to once again hold forth a life full of truth, beauty, and goodness in the midst of barbarism.
If we were to look to the Reformation for our model, they say, "that period was a crucial outgrowth of medievalism, but it was a period of crass and heroic trauma, of emergency living. It would be a great mistake to try to make emergencies the model of a culture."
Today we hear much talk about "world view thinking" and "applying the Bible to every area of life." By comparison to the Medieval Christians, this is often shown to be a thin veneer over pagan thinking or a pretext for constructing a (not-so-attractive) social/political movement. Instead the Medieval Christians call us to "live out the good life one family at a time."
What does it look like? What areas of life are affected?
The essays in this book at least begin the discussion of the answers.... giving a sampling of the fruit to be found in a healthy Christian Culture. Such as:
The holiness of God is characterized by beauty...we desire that the beauty of the Lord be upon us...we desire to behold His beauty in worship and to come before Him in the beauty of holiness. As the Modern world grows more ugly, the church must reflect God's beauty.
Worshipping in the "beauty of holiness" must not be instead translated as the "warmth of niceness." There must be a breathless awe for the "otherness," the sovereignty of God.
...willing to draw lines, but desiring to draw them in the right places.
"Celebration is worshipping God with the material creation...whether in feasts, ceremonies, formal worship, or [marital] lovemaking."
"Perhaps the problem is not the disintegration of the modern family. Perhaps the problem IS the modern family."
THE NURTURING OF "FAT-SOULED" CHILDREN
"We should want much more than just decent children. Rather than failing at basic discipline, I'm much more worried about raising decent but soulless children, children with that blank, unconscious stare who run in tight grooves, completely lacking any passion for anything grand and beautiful."
Other themes touched on city and country rhythms, self-responsibility and the state, the church and creeds, developing technology, the poetic and rationalistic, and confidence in the triumph of the cross.
There is a warning and a challenge in this book for us "thin-souled moderns...leading half-lives." Oh that the beauty of the Lord were upon His People and that the works of their hands might be established in the midst of this present Dark Ages.
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