The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments: A Translation of the First Book of the Rationale Divinorum OfficiorumDurand, Guillaume
Religion
The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments: A Translation of the First Book of the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum
Durand, Guillaume
Christian art and symbolism; Church architecture
It is little better than a truism to assert that there is an intimate
correspondence and relation between cause and effect: yet this thought
opens the way to a very wide field of speculation. Mind cannot act
upon matter without the material result being closely related to the
mental intention which originated it: the fact that anything exists
adapted to a certain end or use is alone enough to presuppose the end
or use, who can see a [Greek text], without distinguishing its
relation to the {lii} want or necessity which brought about [Greek
text]? In short, the [Greek text], whatever it may be, not only
answers to that which called it forth, but, in some sort, represents
materially, or symbolises, the abstract volition or operation of the
mind which originated it. Show us a pitcher, a skewer, or any of the
simplest utensils designed for the most obvious purposes: do not the
cavity of the one, and the piercing point of the other, at once set
forth and symbolise the [Greek text] which was answered in their
production? Now, from this thought, we might proceed to trace out the
truthfulness and reality of every [Greek text] considered in relation
to the [Greek text]; for even a deceptive thing is true and real in
its relation to the mental intention of deceiving: but we intend
merely to consider the way in which the abstract movements or [Greek
text] of mind are _symbolised_ by the material operations or results
which they have produced. In other words, we would allege that
everything material is symbolical of some mental process, of which it
is Indeed only the development: that we may see in everything outward
and visible some inward and spiritual meaning. It is this which makes
'books in everything': finding in everything objective the material
exhibition of the subjective and unseen; not claiming for the abstract
mind an independence of matter, but acknowledging its union with it;
and thus learning from the speculations of reason, to perceive the
fitness for our nature of that system of sacramentality in which God
has placed us, and to bless Him more and more for the Church, a
sacramental institution, and for _the_ Sacraments [Greek text], which
it conveys. This method of viewing the subject will be our excuse for
attempting on the one hand to learn by analysis from a material church
itself, considered objectively, the symbolism which may be supposed to
have directed its design; and on the other {liii} hand to show from
the abstract necessities of the case that a material church might have
been expected to be symbolically designed. But if this theory of
symbolism gives light and meaning and connection to the acknowledged
facts, whether abstract or material, with which we have to do; while
no other view will explain _all_ the phenomena;--it certainly
recommends itself by its simplicity and harmony to a general
reception. Considered in this light, the whole group of separate facts
become linked together and adjusted, and so resolve themselves into a
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