St. Augustine and the Begginings of Gothic Architecture

In 1194 a large rise in the Gothic form of achitecture can be seen within the Christian faith. Popular not only for it's elaborate art style but for its deep spiritual message that seemed to resonate with St. Augustines veiw of the world. The traditional Gothic churches do not appear to be much on the outside however, from within they are designed to display the most beautiful and magnificent imagery available. The interior of most Gothic churches possess several features to perfect their depiction of beauty including candles that add a luminescent glow and contrast to the structures detail as well as colorful tapestry that banners the ceilings. Although, of all the features, the most crucial has to be the clerestory mosaics that depict bible stories through a magnificent kaleidoscope effect, producing various hues and colors in the church as the sun moves through the sky. When combined, all of the visuals work together in order to produce a spiritual feeling within the church. In the end, it is just utilized for the time old tradition of increasing the Christian faith.

In the Renaissance, the Gothic churches highly spiritual style can be seen as a sort of embrace of St. Augustine's philosophies in order to fortify the faith. St. Augustine believed in a form of "introspection," the embrace of inner experience to gain purity. He believed the human body to be an impure creation and thus preached against all physical temptations. His belief is a constant with that of the "divine spark," which claimed that supposedly a peice of God's soul lived in all of us and only be seeking it out can we atain purity. In addition to that belief, St. Augustine saw the bible stories as a sort of cleanser and claimed that one must utilize them in order to reach heaven. With such beleifs established, the Gothic church was born, reitterating the Saints messages in order to beautify the church. They depicted a dreary and dark setting on the outside and a spritual haven on the inside in order to create the contrast between the physical and spiritual. One could only attain happiness within the church because the outside world was seen as corrupt. The creation of mosaics eventually furthered this mindset for they showed a light upon the bible stories that St. Augustine beleived one needed to embrace in order to go to heaven.