‘GOD
DWELLS THERE AMONG MEN’
In
988, emissaries of Prince Vladimir of Kiev visited Hagia Sophia. They famously
remarked, “only this we know, that god dwells there among men.” This statement
highlights the attitude towards holy temples that was universal among ancient
religions – that a god actually lived in the temple. Christianity has moved
away from this belief, but Orthodoxy retains it as a liturgical concept. In an
Orthodox church, Christ and the saints are present among the faithful. Prayers
are directed towards their icons, not towards the sky. …
… This is a great difference from Western
architecture. A Gothic church is a monument offered up to God. It is an attempt
by man to order and beautify all that exists in creation. It points upward to
God the Father who is outside of it, and prayers are directed likewise. in
contrast, an Orthodox church is introverted. The interior represents Heaven,
and to enter it is to step into the New Jerusalem. God dwells there among men,
and they have no need of the sun, neither of the moon, for the Glory of God
illumines it (cf. Revelation 21 : 23).
Light pours into a Gothic church through great
decorated windows. Broken into dazzling colors, it overwhelms the materiality
of the walls. The stonework itself magnifies the effect, as it is thin and delicate,
and carven with most delicate tracery. The weight of the stone is denied. The
worshipper is at once conscious of the awesome radiance and power of the light
without and the tenuous structure of the material within. The light beautifies
the structure by dematerializing it, even until the stone itself looks like
rays of light.
The
walls of an Orthodox church are immensely thick and strong. The windows are
small and up high, set deeply into the openings. The light is seen reflected
off the thickness of the wall, rather than directly from the windows. In some
Byzantine churches the window is translucent alabaster or marble, so that the
light seems to glow from within the wall itself. Gold mosaics or bright
frescoes play the light from many surfaces. Polished lamps and inlaid furniture
reflect highlights from every direction. Deep aisles or side chapels behind
arches appear as mysterious shadows in the distance, which make the church look
brighter by the rich contrast. This is mass transfigured by light. It is the
same light as in the icons, holy and all- pervading, the Uncreated Light which
emanates from god to his creation. The stone and plaster glow from within. They
do not seem transitory, but more real. Walls and piers seem as silent and as
still as ancient mountains. They are bathed with the Light of Christ, and are
sustained and strengthened by it as we are.
… A
church building is the structure and organization of all the icons within it.
As a unified edifice, these make up a single integrated icon which encompasses
all the history and theology of the Church. The organization of the icons
broadly follows three architectural axes.
The
first axis is west to east. This is the liturgical axis. The narthex represents
the fallen world, and is used for preparation and exorcisms, for judgment is at
the gates of heaven. The nave represents the redeemed world, or the Church,
where the faithful gather among the saints for the worship of god. The
sanctuary represents highest heaven; the altar is the throne of god and his
tomb.
The
second axis is vertical and can be understood as hierarchical. The Pantocrator
is at the top of the dome with hands outspread, embracing the universe he
created. Below are angels in their appropriate ranks, followed by the evangelists, representing the
beginning of the church, and then the saints in their tiers below. To the
medieval mind, hierarchy meant freedom; it was the mark of identity and
security. This axis and hierarchy exist also in the iconostasis as a miniature
version of the same concept. The vertical axis has another interpretation which
is the approach of god and man. The dome, most brightly lit and filled with
angels, is heaven. It touches the nave at the pendentives, where the
evangelists are painted, because they record the meeting of god and man.
alternately, some churches have four great feasts which are theophanies at the
pendentives, for the same reason. The Theotokos of the sign in the apse
represents the Church reaching back up to god. Christ appears in the sign
before her, emphasizing that by the Incarnation He is already with Her.
The
third axis is circular and horizontal, the interplay of icons cycling around
the nave and relating to one another across it. This axis often portrays the
flow of time, although it can express many other relationships as well. The
great feasts may be ordered chronologically around the nave, or specific feasts
may be combined or face one another to highlight theological connections. In a
large church there may be hundreds of biblical and historical scenes, and their
placement with respect to one another and to the principal feasts can suggest
almost limitless depths of interpretation.
Historically,
church builders have struggled with the interplay of these three axes. …
THE
TEMPLE AS COSMOLOGY
… Of
all forms, the cube and the dome are the most sacred and universal in
architecture. The cube or square represents the earth, while the dome
symbolizes the sky. It was ever the desire of the Romans to combine these forms
and represent the universe. They achieved this at Hagia Sophia. The square nave
has the most water-like pavement in the world. Sheets of wavy blue-gray marble
flow from the altar like the river of the water of life from the Throne of God.
Rows of columns rise from the banks like trees. Amazingly, the builders
abandoned the thousand-year-old tradition of the Classical orders, and crafted
a new type of capital which looks like the fronds of palms blowing in the wind.
The arches above the capitals are decorated similarly. The whole nave is like a
walled garden of unimaginable scale, the very image of Paradise...
“ON
EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN Form and
Meaning in Orthodox Architecture by ANDREW GOULD.
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