{"product_id":"9780819229755-beauty-awakening-belief","title":"Beauty Awakening Belief","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat once drove men to construct enormous abbeys and cathedrals, with gargoyles, rounded arches, rose windows, dark recesses, and flying buttresses?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the modern imagination, these structures are believed to tell a series of stories about the meaning of life, but this anachronism would have astounded their medieval creators. As he explores two of the finest churches of this period – the Abbey of Mont St- Michel on the Normandy coast, and soaring Chartres Cathedral in the fields of the Loire Valley – author Jon Sweeney comes to the conclusion that, without faith, they make no sense at all. But within a life of faith, the universe that includes them is marvelous, beautiful, mysterious, and tapped into something that secularism cannot fathom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis luminous series of reflections hinges on seven words of Gothic spirituality — space, sanctuary, stone, light, darkness, gargoyles, and flight and shows us that beauty is not just for admiring, but a key to believing, and reveals how the vision of our medieval forebears can refresh and inspire our faith today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jon M. Sweeney","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47356944613631,"sku":"9780819229755","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0781\/9424\/5887\/files\/9780819229755.jpg?v=1767928882","url":"https:\/\/churchpublishing.org\/products\/9780819229755-beauty-awakening-belief","provider":"Church Publishing Incorporated","version":"1.0","type":"link"}