A Review of “Christianity and Its Worldview” by Fr. Alfredo Sáenz: Rediscovering Beauty and Culture in the Middle Ages.

Re-reading books that brightened up your youthful years is often an experience somewhere between enchanting and exhilarating. This is what happens, at least in my case, with Christianity and its worldview, by Fr. Alfredo Sáenz. In addition to the publication by Gladius (1st edition: 1992; 2nd edition: 2007), there is another available online published by Fundación Gratis Date in 2005 with the title Christianity, a historical reality.

Father Sáenz affirms that, in the conferences of the cycle that gave rise to the book, the only merit “If there was, it was the synthesis of everything read and the range of topics that made it possible to understand what the medieval Weltanschauung was”. Regarding “everything read”, thanks to the numerous citations, the new or old reader can access the work of authors such as Hilaire Belloc, Nicholas Berdiaeff, Edgard de Bruyne, Reuben Calderon Bouchet, Gustave Cohen, AK Coomarasawamy, Daniel-Rops, Christopher Dawson, Romano Guardini, Johan Huizinga, PL Landsberg, CS Lewis, Emile Male, Julio Meinvielle, Regine Pernoud, Gerald G . Walsh and so many others. According to the topic he deals with, the author prefers one more than the others but, in all cases, he leaves you wanting more. He also points out that his attempt was “to show how the temporary refraction of the Gospel is possible, how the realization of a Christian society was in fact possible, despite all the defects that stained it”.

THE SCHEME

Before dealing specifically with culture and art in Christianity and its worldview, it seems opportune to dwell on the general scheme of the book. In successive chapters, Fr. Sáenz deals with themes such as Christianity and the Middle Ages; culture in Christianity; the political order of Christianity; the social order of Christianity; the art of Christianity and, finally, post-Christianity. Among other possible characterizations, Fr. Sáenz points out that “When the nations, in their internal life and in their mutual relations, conform to the doctrine of the Gospel, taught by the Magisterium [de la Iglesia]in the economy, politics, morality, art, legislation, we will have a concert of Christian peoples, that is, a Christianity.. In relation to western European medieval Christianity, its characteristic notes – by the way, it is a non-exhaustive list – were the centrality of faith, the predominance of the symbol, the architectural character of the social order and its youthful note.

Having said this, I go punctually to the subject of culture and art. As far as culture is concerned, without losing sight of other related issues such as educational levels – especially universities as an example of Christian originality – it is important to focus on popular culture.

Daniel-Rops, faced with the common idea of ​​the ignorance of the multitudes in the Middle Ages, wonders if the number of illiterates in the Middle Ages was as great as is usually thought. “Given the multitude of clerics, who at that time were the best intellectually educated, and famous professors who came from the ranks of the simplest people, it seems difficult to conclude that the common instruction of children has been so deficient. Prominent intellectuals of the Middle Ages were of the most humble social background”. Furthermore, in those medieval centuries “It was not thought that knowing how to read was the same as being educated”. Having said this, I add, these considerations do not imply despising what is good about the diffusion of literacy. The current problem is that, while there may be literacy, this is not a guarantee of culture in the best sense.

The chapter that Fr. Alfredo Sáenz dedicates to art is, in my opinion, the one in which the author best shows his love for the subject matter. The scheme of work is eloquent: I. The Cathedral, a microcosm; II. The builders of the cathedral; III. The architecture of the cathedral; IV. The sculpture of the cathedral; V. The light and colors of the cathedral; SAW. The music in the cathedral; VII. The theater from the cathedral; VIII. Literature in relation to the cathedral and, finally, a scholium in which Auguste Rodin’s admiration for the cathedral as a synthesis of the medieval artistic world is collected. “Society, as a whole, lived in an atmosphere of beauty.” With Huizinga, he argues that “the aesthetics of existence was shown in the daily appearance of the city and the countryside”.

CATHEDRAL

Father Sáenz analyzes “the various manifestations of art in the Middle Ages (…) in the light of the cathedral, the starting point and return point of all the aesthetic expressions that impregnated medieval Christianity with beauty.” Regarding the cathedral as a microcosm –the rest of the points mentioned would require separate notes–, the first relationship is that of the cathedral with nature. In this sense, Emile Mâle maintains that, at the bottom of medieval art, “there is an attitude of cosmic sympathy”. For my part, I note that, as Ratzinger observes in The spirit of the liturgy. An introductionthe catholic liturgy It also has a cosmic dimension. As regards the relationship between the cathedral and the city, it was –and, in some cases, still is– “the topographical and spiritual center of the city”. Towards them “all roads converged. All the aspirations of medieval man came together in it and were verticalized in it”. Regarding daily life, Daniel-Rops points out that “the cathedral was the house of the people, certainly not in the political sense that this expression has taken, but insofar as the people felt comfortable in it”. Finally, the cathedral as a sum of arts meant that all the arts “that were sheltered in the cathedral took a joint part in the mysterious reality of its celebrations, and it is during its course that they especially showed the vitality that animated them.”

As can be seen, it is an introductory work that deserves to be read to deepen the topics presented from the authors cited and recommended by Fr. Alfredo Sáenz.