Reply To: Stained Glass

[Lucas Warthen]

The mass presentation of light in churches was meant as a symbolic presence of God. The more light in the church, the of God that was there and the more presence the church might feel. Although the trend has somewhat died out today (we don’t see entire walls of stained glass coupled with flying buttresses on the outside), stained glass is still present in churches throughout the world, allowing streams of light to come in. The light in today’s churches is still symbolic though it is not outright stated by the church (I think ‘light’ is always associated with a higher power or God) and the stained glass windows depict those images from the bible that are important, and also display holy figures (such as saints and the Virgin Mary). The light in the past was surely meant to impact the chamber and still does to some extent today.