Angels in the Architecture

Rating:
Summary: I don't want to be preached to!
Review: Anyone who has read or heard material produced by the Dougs (Wilson and Jones) of Canon Press can appreciate their contributions and insight to the discussions within the evangelical church. However, it is their thoughts and scholarly work on the pursuit of the full, Christian life where they are at their best. What Angels in the Architecture suggests is nothing short of revolutionary. Not an Oliver-Cromwell-meets-Paul-Revere type of revolution, but a much more insidious revolution that spans the distance of even centuries. It is the kind of revolution whose battlefields are the family gathered for dinner, the place where the rod meets the rump, an author's godly and submissive inspirations, the church gathered for the Lord's supper. Christian medievalism must be a grass-roots revolution, calling for faithfulness and generational patience in Christ's body. The Dougs teach us that we must stand on the broad shoulders of our godly church traditions and begin to think and feel the rhythmns of truth, beauty, and goodness before the face of God. Our culture must be transformed, so we must see the urgency and the opportunites that surround us. The Protestant Reformation may have preserved God's truth, but we must synthesize reformational truth with the glorious cultural visions of our medieval fathers. In Angels in the Architecture, Jones and Wilson have broken the ice. Now we must see how deep the water goes.

Rating:
Summary: A grass-roots cultural vision
Review: Anyone who has read or heard material produced by the Dougs (Wilson and Jones) of Canon Press can appreciate their contributions and insight to the discussions within the evangelical church. However, it is their thoughts and scholarly work on the pursuit of the full, Christian life where they are at their best. What Angels in the Architecture suggests is nothing short of revolutionary. Not an Oliver-Cromwell-meets-Paul-Revere type of revolution, but a much more insidious revolution that spans the distance of even centuries. It is the kind of revolution whose battlefields are the family gathered for dinner, the place where the rod meets the rump, an author's godly and submissive inspirations, the church gathered for the Lord's supper. Christian medievalism must be a grass-roots revolution, calling for faithfulness and generational patience in Christ's body. The Dougs teach us that we must stand on the broad shoulders of our godly church traditions and begin to think and feel the rhythmns of truth, beauty, and goodness before the face of God. Our culture must be transformed, so we must see the urgency and the opportunites that surround us. The Protestant Reformation may have preserved God's truth, but we must synthesize reformational truth with the glorious cultural visions of our medieval fathers. In Angels in the Architecture, Jones and Wilson have broken the ice. Now we must see how deep the water goes.

Rating:
Summary: A Critique of Modernism
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful vision of life as it ought to be
Review: The Dougs (Wilson and Jones) once wrote in a series on Sabbath-keeping, "So if you are not a sabbatarian, we don't have any new arguments to convince you to become one. We just want to make you wish that you were convinced."

_Angels_ accomplishes this on an entirely different subject. Though none of us are medievalists, this book makes us wish we were, though its vivid depiction of medieval Christendom's philosophy and lifestyle. Wilson and Jones paint a beautiful portrait of the medieval vision of life and culture, a vision of how life and culture ought to be -- and how it can be once again, if the Church will faithfully fulfill her mission and her calling.

Rating:
Summary: The good life. But prove it!
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: A great prespective on the Medieval worldview
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Another must read....
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: I don't want to be preached to!
Review: While reading this book, I felt that I was being preached to.. that I wasn't a good Christian if I didn't have children or find a church to belong to, or if I allowed the State to rule me. I had to read the book for a Medieval Chritianity class, and really, there wasn't much medival information, other than to quote medival figures. I was hoping for a book that would show how the Medival people did things in order to show their love for God..not just the occasional aside about them.