Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth [Paperback]

Douglas Jones (Author), Douglas Wilson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1885767404 | ISBN-13: 978-1885767400 | Publication Date: November 1, 1998 | Edition: 1

Christianity presents a glorious vision for culture, a vision overflowing with truth, beauty, and goodness. It's a vision that stands in stark conflict with the anemic modern (and postmodern) perspectives that dominate contemporary life. Medieval Christianity began telling a beautiful story about the good life, but it was silenced in mid-sentence. The Reformation rescued truth, but its modern grandchildren have often ignored the importance of a medieval grasp of the good life. This book sketches a vision of "Medieval Protestantism," a personal and cultural vision that embraces the fullness of Christian truth, beauty, and goodness.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Douglas Jones is the senior editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine and a senior fellow at New St. Andrews College, Moscow, Idaho. He is the author of the children's books Huguenot Garden, Scottish Seas, and Dutch Color, and a contributor to Back to Basics: Rediscovering the Richness of the Reformed Faith.

Douglas Wilson is pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho, the editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine, and a senior fellow at New St. Andrews College. He is the author of Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning and a contributor to Back to Basics: Rediscovering the Richness of the Reformed Faith.

Product Details

• Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Canon Press; 1 edition (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885767404
• ISBN-13: 978-1885767400
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Challenge to Modernity, January 7, 1999

By 

John Jeffery Fanella ([e-mail]) (Raleigh. NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth (Paperback)

This book presents a unique discussion about curtailing modernity's petrifying effects on the soul. It offers what other recent modernity challengers (David Wells, Os Guinsess, etc. ) have missed--what to do about it? The authors' solution is to pick up where midievalism left off at the Reformation, and pursue with abandon the qualities of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness both in and out of the church. The book avoids much of the sarchasim for which the authors have become quite famous, and instead demonstrates the authors' more noble abilities to communicate maturely. The vision of a modern, Reformed, midievalism is bazaar, I know, but one seriously wonders if modernity and postmodernity can be toppled any other way. One warning: Angels in the Acrhitecture will bring the vileness of your own modernity to the surface. If you don't know that it's there already, be sure you're ready for a deep, heart-felt challenge to your very unbeautiful, self-consuming, authority-rejecting, relationship-escaping, trite, non-sovereign God-Worshipping, poetry-loathing, sectarianism-endorsing, Madison Avenue-copying worldview. For those who know they fit this mold, here is the iron mallot to break that mold forever. My fifth star is missing not because I don't believe the book deserves five stars, but because I have of late reserved five star status for fine poetry only.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The good life. But prove it!, July 19, 2002

By 

Adrian C Keister (Radford, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth (Paperback)

This book is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. My soul simply aches after reading anything in it. I especially enjoyed the chapter Wine Dark Sea, and its analysis of ancient pagan art. Wilson claims that Jesus Christ has overthrown that regime, and the only beauty available to us now is through Him. Even non-Christians, in producing works of great art, must do so in reference to Christianity.

However, there is one major flaw in this book, though perhaps the authors never intended to address this issue. That flaw is this: the authors make the claim that the Medieval times were times when truth, beauty, and goodness were defining charateristics. It's fine to make that claim, but there is no proof of it in the book that I can see. I _want_ to believe it simply because I see no beauty whatsoever in modernity or post-modernity. I want to believe them, yet I know next to nothing about the Medieval times. It seems to me that the authors might very profitably spend some time supporting their claim that the Medieval period was everything they claim it was. Or perhaps they have already done that, and haven't produced the evidence of their work. In either case, I want to see the proof!

You've whetted my appetite, now satisfy it!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Critique of Modernism, December 26, 2000

By 

Mark Henreckson (Mundelein, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth (Paperback)

Modernism has failed. While most of the intelligentsia still view the world through the strict, formal constructs of the modernist lens, the actual system is a dying religion. The "enlightenment" has kept many blindfolded through the centuries of its existence. The so-called "reason" of enlightenment thought has imprisoned and murdered. It has created the cold, ugly world in which we now live.

But what is to be done? It seems as though these Dark Ages will never end. Even most Christians, who should know better, have bowed before the god of modernity. Should we despair? It certainly seems justified. However, amidst the darkness which enshrouds the mass of pop-Christian fluff books and secular nonsense stands a wonderful new book called Angels in the Architecture, written by Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson. In this book, Jones and Wilson remind us that things have not always been like they are now. There was an age when truth, beauty, and goodness were the defining virtues: what has been called the Medieval period. This was an age in which God was both glorified and enjoyed. Modernist Christians believe that we are more holy if we eternally wear a long sour face and suck on lemons. Medieval Christians believed that God had called them to enjoy life - to laugh, to play, and to feast.

But Jones and Wilson do not merely look back at the medieval period with nostalgia. They apply what used to be to what could be. Rather than falling into the trap of pessimism and despairing lamenting about our culture, Angels in the Architecture presents a multi-faced display of what life, culture, and a worldview should be. Douglas Jones gives a good overview of the book by describing what virtues a Christian culture should manifest:

"[A] love of beauty permeating every part of life; a deep respect for the majesty and liberty of God; a holy recognition of the deep biblical antithesis; humility in covenantal redemption - imputed righteousness; laughter as a habit of life; a devotion to celebration - feasting and lovemaking; the centrality of the Church; a humble submission to godly tradition; the peace of federal headship in marriage; a soulful nurturing of children for millennia; a community shaped by rural rhythms; self-responsibility and a fading state; an acknowledgement of creational hierarchies; a harmony of gratitude and discipline in developing technologies; the predominance of poetic over rationalistic knowledge; a confidence in the triumph of the cross."

This book is probably the best book a Christian could read in order to get a vision of what Wilson terms "a second Christendom" would be like. We should be striving to conform ourselves not to a rigid, formal, modernistic Christianity, but a Christianity full of life, zest, and power. Until we break free from the cage called modernity, we shall never truly experience and enjoy the life that God has given to us.