Jay
Dyer has given this definition of a golem:
. . . Goldberg’s machines are evident as an
embodiment of the Golem principle, the notion from Jewish mysticism that a
machine man can be created using kabbalistic magic to do the manual labor of
its creator. As a purely determined cause and effect instrument, the
Goldberg Machine, like the Golem, does only what it is programmed to.
What
is interesting about this description is that it is very much akin to the
medieval Gothic cathedral in both its essential points:
First,
in that the Gothic cathedral is a machine man;
And
second, in that it is ‘programmed’ with a certain intent.
As
to the first point, Fr Steven Allen refers to Christopher Dawson’s remarks on
Gothic architecture to this effect:
With the new Gothic
architecture of the post-Schism West, the flying buttress and pointed arch, the
church building goes from being a thing at rest to being a machine, something
in continuous dynamic tension, in activity, from tradition to dialectic (Fr
Steven Allen, paraphrasing Chr. Dawson, 43:38 and following, https://www.spreaker.com/user/youngfaithradio/class-12,
12 Feb. 2018; thanks to C for this link).
But
this machine, like the golem, is also made in the image of man. Christos Yannaras writes in The Freedom of Morality,
Correspondingly, the
technique of Gothic architecture is based on a structure of small chiseled
stones of uniform shape. The stones form columns, and the columns are divided
into ribbed composite piers, with the same number of ribs as those in the vaulting
which receives them.14 The arrangement of the columns and the division of the ribs
create an absolutely fixed “skeleton plan” which neutralizes the weight of the material
by balancing the thrusts of the walls. Here again, the thesis is reinforced by systematic
refutation of the antithesis, “the supports prevail over the weights placed on them,”
and the weight of the material is neutralized by the rationalistically arranged
static balance.
This technique conceals
“a profoundly analytic spirit, relentlessly dominating the construction. This
spirit considers the forces, analyzes them into diagrams of statics and petrifies
them in space,”15 forming a unity which is not organic but mechanical, a monolithic
framework. “Our sense of stability is satisfied but amazed, because the parts are
no longer connected organically but mechanically: they look like a human frame naked
of flesh.”16
The homunculus has also
been compared to the golem
of Jewish folklore. Though the specifics outlining the creation of the golem
and homunculus are very different, the concepts both metaphorically relate man
to the divine, in his construction of life in his own image.
As
to the second point, for what purpose was the Gothic cathedral-golem
created? To crush the ghost of true
Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, out of the souls of Europeans. Again from Mr Yannaras:
“Gothic art,” observes
Choisy,20 “operates with antitheses, contrasting with the plains the elevation
of its perpendicular lines and enormous spires.” What we have here is not simply
an aesthetic or proportional contrast, however, but an anthropocentric
tendency, a demand for the earthly to be elevated to the transcendent. The
union of created and uncreated is not here regarded as a personal
event, as the transformation of man, the world and
history in the person of God the Word incarnate. It is an encounter between two
natures, with human nature clothed in the
dignity and transcendent majesty of the divine nature— which is exactly what
happens with papal primacy and infallibility, and with the totalitarian
centralization of the Roman Catholic Church. “The vaulted construction of a
Gothic church desires, and tends, to give the impression of a monolithic
framework”21— it is the image that the Roman Catholic West has of the Church.
Approaching the divine presupposes in this context a comparison between human
smallness and the grandeur of divine authority an authority tangibly expressed
by its monolithic, unified and majestic organization and its administrative
structure. The Church is not the world in the dimension of the Kingdom, the harmonization
of the inner principles of created things with the affirmation of human freedom
in Christ’s assumption of worldly flesh; but it is the visible, concrete
potentiality for the individual to submit to divine authority. This is why in a
Gothic church the material is not “saved,” it is not “made word” and it is not
“transfigured”: it is subdued by a superior force. To use specialized terminology
once again: “The supports prevail over the weight placed on them… the vaulting
with its supple formation clearly shows that it concentrates there all the
action in the forces, and compels matter to rise up to the heights.”22 This compulsion
of matter in Gothic architecture represents a
technology which leads straight to contemporarytechnocracy.23
Source: Freedom
of Morality, pgs. 10-1
“It was nevertheless
the art of the Gothic cathedrals which, in the whole of Christendom, then
became the instrument— perhaps the most effective one— of Catholic repression”:
Duby, L’Europe des Cathidrales, p.
72. Direct experience alone can justify and verify
these conclusions. In the cathedrals of Cologne, Milan or Ulm, and other
European cities, anyone with experience of the theology and art of the Eastern
Church can see the justification for the “rebellion” of the Reformation and for
the various ways in which man revolts against this transcendent authority which
is expressed with such genius in architecture: it is an authority which
humiliates and degrades human personhood and even ultimately destroys it.
Revolt is inevitable against such a God, who consents to encounter man on a
scale of such crushing difference in size.
Source: Ibid., p. 10, note 19
Do
these ideas about Gothic architecture seem doubtful? There is no smoking gun, but remember the
time we are talking about: In the Middle
Ages, many dark arts that had gone underground during the Orthodox age of
Western Europe were re-emerging. Monks
and Popes were openly pursuing knowledge of alchemy, the Zodiac, and such like:
. . . Albertus Magnus, a Dominican
monk, is known to have written works such as the Book of Minerals
where he observed and commented on the operations and theories of alchemical
authorities like Hermes and Democritus and unnamed alchemists of his time.
Albertus critically compared these to the writings of Aristotle and Avicenna,
where they concerned the transmutation of metals. From the time shortly after
his death through to the 15th century, more than 28 alchemical tracts were
misattributed to him, a common practice giving rise to his reputation as an
accomplished alchemist.[49]
Likewise, alchemical texts have been attributed to Albert's student Thomas
Aquinas.
It
is not too much of a stretch, therefore, that the idea of a golem-cathedral was
operating at some level in the souls of the architects of those days.
However
this may be, the South must now be brought in for a bit of a scolding for being
so devoted to Gothic architecture, for not seeing the falsehoods that gave it
birth. Her leading men poured out praise
for it. Frederick Porcher called it an
expression of the genius of Northern European art (‘Modern Art’, 1852, All Clever Men, Who Make Their Way, U of
Ark. Press, 1982, p. 315).
James
Johnston Pettigrew wrote gushingly about Seville Cathedral (the Gothic element
aside, there are some good ideas expressed below):
Upon entering the
magnificent Seville Cathedral, for instance, Pettigrew observes that:
“….A faint gleam of
light, struggling through the painted windows of the dome, fell upon the lofty
crucifix, and seemed to point to the life of purity beyond. At such a time, one
cannot but feel that there is an ethereal spirit within, a spark of the Divine essence,
which would fain cast off its prison house of mortality and flee to the Eternal
existence that gave it birth. This edifice is one of few creations of man that
realizes expectation. Morning, noon, and night, none can enter without
acknowledging that he stands on holy ground. The accessories, the trembling
swell of the organs, the sweet odor of incense, the beautiful works of art,
which elsewhere distract the attention, here combine in universality of
grandeur to establish that harmony of the soul so conducive to devotion; and if
the excellence of the architecture consist in the accomplishment of the
rational purpose assigned, to this must the palm be awarded. Political
economists may reason that such an expenditure in unproductive stone withdraws
from the general circulation a sensible capital; the severe reformer may preach
against the adoration of saints and images; but their remonstrance will fall
pointless upon the heart. There are occasions when humanity rises above the
earthly rules of logic; and acknowledges obedience only to those hidden laws
which govern the divine portion of our nature, and whose sequence is beyond the
reach of human intellect.” [Notes, pp. 186-187]
Some
of this is understandable. There is
quite a bit of natural beauty in these cathedrals that appeals to the carnal
senses, the imagination, and the emotions.
But precisely because it does act so strongly to inflame them, it misses
the mark of true Christian art, which Christos Yannaras beworded briefly above
and Fr Steven describes in even more detail in his lecture linked above.
However,
now that these Gothic cathedrals are being used mostly as museums for Chinese
tourists (to use Fr Andrew Phillips’s saying), Western Europe has a chance to
leave behind the distortions of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism and return
to its original Christian faith, that of the Holy Orthodox Church.
The
outside of a golem-cathedral:
The
inside of a golem-cathedral:
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
