Built to be read

How to read a church by Richard Taylor, Rider, £ 5.80

Churches and cathedrals, all over the world, are full of signs and symbols. The ordinary and regular church goer may not always realize this or recognize the signs. Richard Taylor in this evocative book deciphers some of the signs and symbols. The result is remarkable for it reveals many unknown aspects of Christian theology.

Signs and their meanings begin from the very structure of any church. The spire points to the heavens; the aisle leading to the altar is akin to a gangway of a ship carrying worshippers to God; the altar, the heart of the building,is contained in a separate and sacred space; colours, animals, numbers and the scenes in the stained glass are all associated with Christian teachings. “In a number of senses,” Taylor says, “and to different degrees, churches were built to be read.”

The important point concerns the reasons for endowing churches with these images that are imbued with meaning and significance. The common explanation, which Taylor rejects, is that the images were set up to make a church a “storybook of the illiterate”. His rejection is based on the simple argument that one has to know the stories to understand the meaning and the significance of the symbols and the images. The symbols were appealing to the educated and the illiterate: to king and peasant alike. It was an accepted idea in medieval times — following St Thomas Aquinas — that “man cannot understand without images.”

About the symbols and images in churches, Taylor is certain about one thing. The images were not put there for reasons of beauty alone. The beautiful stained glass in the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge is there not for its unquestioned aesthetic appeal but because of its spiritual power. All images in a church are there to enhance the building’s sacredness.

The most powerful image in Christian theology is that of the cross. But this was not always so. The earliest Christians preferred the anchor or the fish. For them the crucifixion was a problem since it depicted God as the victim of a grotesque and painful punishment. It was only with time that Christians began to think through the implications and meanings of the crucifixion and to glorify the cross. It seemed to them that Jesus had understood the positive significance of the cross. Despite the consensus on the power of the cross, different crosses stand for different things. A cross with with its ends coming to points is the Passion Cross, the points symbolizing the wounds of Jesus. The Easter cross is always garlanded by flowers, especially lilies, and symbolizes new life.

Colours too have their points of reference. For example blue is associated with the Virgin Mary and also with Jesus, blue is the colour of the sky and stands for heavenly love. Mother Teresa chose blue for the border of the sari worn by the nuns of her order.

Taylor’s book is rich in detail and is written in a manner to attract even those who are ignorant of Christian imagery.