I'm consistently fascinated by acts of human culture that embody our deepest values in very practical, visible ways--not fascinated as an outside observer, detached in her analysis, but as a practitioner myself. Coming off a weekend conference about teaching Christian practices, my radar is especially tuned to such manifestations, which is in part why this quote from the magazine Dwell caught my attention. It's a very finely written tidbit from a small book review of Heavenly Vaults: From Romanesque to Gothic in European Architecture:

These buildings, some nearly a millennium old, are charged with the grandeur of God, as though their architects, suddenly doubting that it could be read in nature, decided to codify it in stone. The skyward vaults suggest their faith's holy order, the majestic possibilities of men working to glorify their creator, the intimation, the endurance of infinity.

One of the things we try to do each year with our students is help them see that, whether people claim to be religious or not, the things that hold deepest meaning for them (individually and as communities) come out in the ways they eat, the houses they build, the choices they make about their children, and so on. Architecture is the example we go to time and time again because it's such a powerful example in terms of its actual buildings, as well as its function as a metaphor. Add Heavenly Vaults to the reading list...