Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals [Paperback]

Robert Barron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2002

Like a mystical tome awaiting to be deciphered, a Gothic cathedral holds many secrets about the soul's yearning for God. In Heaven in Stone and Glass, Catholic priest and professor of theology at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago teaches us how to read these secrets, with beautiful reflections on aspects such as light and darkness, the labyrinth, the meaning of gargoyles and demons, and the imagery of vertical space. whether you are preparing for a pilgrimage to York Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, or looking ahead to inspirational bedside reading, this book is the perfect guide.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Barron, a priest and professor at Mundelein Seminary, has produced a deeply personal and deeply engaging guide to the experience of the medieval or medieval-style cathedral. His is not a scholarly treatment but rather a kind of staged walk around the cathedral with the reader, drawing spiritual sustenance from the features of the building: stillness from the Rose Window, sense of the inhabited cosmos from the tympana, and so forth. Barron's treatment is direct and even vulnerable but not naive: he acknowledges the painful ambiguities of the presence of Jewish prophets in the cathedral's sculptures and makes reference to figures as au courant as John Lennon and Alasdair Macintyre. A charming and appealing volume; highly recommended.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Barron's mission is much the same as John Drury's in Painting the Word [BKL D 15 99]: to open a window on the symbolism of Christian art. Whereas Drury aimed to enrich appreciation of paintings, Barron unveils the symbolism of those triumphs of the art of Christendom, the Gothic cathedrals. Exemplifying primarily from Notre-Dame de Paris and Chartres, he discusses 14 features of a cathedral, including space, light, and orientation (e.g., the verticality of every major line in the building), as well as tangible features, such as the rose windows and the labyrinth on the floor at Chartres. Besides what a feature symbolizes--for instance, the cathedral's interior space represents the womb of Our Lady, a place of safety and comfort--Barron explains the doctrinal rationale and implications of the feature's significance. He does the latter so literately and congenially that the little book makes fine devotional as well as informational reading. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824519930
• ISBN-13: 978-0824519933
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fortuitous, October 10, 2000

By 

Ralph C. Robinson III "ex libris" (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals (Hardcover)

I am a seminarian where Fr. Barron teaches and have had some of his courses. He is an excellent instructor, pastor, and priest, but more importantly he is one of the best communicators around. He can convey with passion and brevity in two minutes what it would take others twenty; he is exciting and inspiring, chracteristic of a good witness to the faith. I feel blessed to have him as a part of my formation. He tackles theological issues with a fresh and unique perspective. Heaven in Stone and Glass is no exception. Not many books may ever have been written about the distinct (and sorely overlooked) spiritual dimensions that Gothic cathedrals convey. Joseph Campbell, in The Power of Myth, once said that while in France, Chartres Cathedral is his sacrament; it puts him in touch with the Divine like nothing else. That is the point of Gothic; to make you awestruck, humble and kneeling before the Almighty. Travel to any cathedral in Europe or Washington National Cathedral in D.C. and you immediately understand; it is the numinous, the religious feeling, the experiential wonder of which Schleiermacher wrote; it is the Mysterium Tremendum of which Otto wrote. It is to make you feel like a child before God; small and lost in praise walking in the lofty, incense-filled rarified interiors of these cathedrals. It is to put us in our place before the grandeur of God like no other. It could be argued that this is what true religious experience is, of which Gothic cathedrals afford us. Perhaps that is what, in part, Jesus meant when He said we had to become child-like unto the Lord. That is the point of Gothic. This is what Bob Barron was on to. This could come in very handy as we continue to deal with the loss of the sacred in general in the modern world as well as the inexplicably bad taste in music, art, liturgy, and architecture that is prevalent in too many of our churches, that has the propensity of turning many inquirers to the faith off. Get this book, share it with others, and keep it in your prayer and the treasure of your heart.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Spiritually Uplifting, September 21, 2001

By 

John T. Farrell (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals (Hardcover)

Robert Barron's enlightening little book explores the rich symbolic world of medieval cathedrals. Written as a series of fifteen meditations, "Heaven in Stone and Glass" approaches the cathedral as an intentional evocation of both Christian belief and the Christian journey. Barron's observations are rich in metaphor and allusion. His images are strongly drawn: the nave as womb, cruciformity as a way of the cross for all entrants, verticality as an invitation to transcendence, the rose as music of the spheres. He is also a voluminous reader, citing sources as diverse as the Desert Fathers, Dante, Flannery O'Connor, and Alisdair MacIntyre.

One criticism though. Despite his deep knowledge of cathedrals and their meaning, Barron misstated a few architectural details. Mostly notable was his contention that the flying buttress (not the pointed arch) was the architectural breakthrough that made brilliant illumination possible. But don't let this lapse deter you from enjoying this excellent book.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreshing meditation, May 8, 2002

By 

Michael F. Tamara (Syracuse, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals (Hardcover)

Fr. Barron's book is truly a small gem. Very compact and readable yet extremely spiritual and philosophical, it gets right at the heart of the very essence of the great cathedrals. Simply looking at their form, though very beautiful in itself, is not enough without completely immersing oneself in the mentality and spirit of the people who built them. This rich mentality is in sharp contrast to the agnostic hedonism that resulted from the Enlightenment. As an architecture student, it gives me great hope that, as he points out in the book, we are in an age when people are becoming increasingly interested in spirituality and symbolism and long for a reality deeper than the profane and the mundane. Given the spiritually and architecturally impoverished and overall pathetic nature of most Catholic churches built in the past three decades, this meditation is like a candle in the dark, not only harkening back to a time when everyone knew that God was the center of the universe, but inspiring hope that that time will one day return. In short, this is an excellent book that I recommend to everyone.