Old St. Paul's conveys an..."impression of a clandestine meeting-place, a catacomb, or cave-dwelling...built as it is into the side of a cliff..
On the walls of European caves such as at Lascaux are prehistoric paintings of animals that are regarded as the oldest evidence of religion among human beings. It is supposed that ancient hunters created these icon-like images to express gratitude, wonder, and hope with regard to the animals that sustained their lives. Like all hunters, they spent a lot more time story-telling than they did hunting, and the cave paintings were probably the result of winter nights made shorter by tales and songs of wooly mammoths slain and eaten, and of the miraculous renewal of their numbers that occurred each spring. This sense of gratitude t o whatever it is that provides such abundance is the primal source of religion and (I am convinced) is with us still.
To my imagination, Old St. Paul's bears a resemblance to those old hunting camp cave dwellings, and had it's stained glass contained imagery of hairy bisons and wooly mammoths I would not have been surprised. Those who worship in this place are delving deep into the primal elements of religion and community, and when the congregation emerges from its prayers into Sunday morning sunshine it is re enacting a Navajo creation myth wherein human beings emerge into the world from a crack in the surface. That was in Arizona, however, and Old St. Paul's is in Scotland, so you might have to forget about the sunshine. But cosmic rebirth can occur anywhere, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment