Church entrance 1: the secret of stone carving

Kant said, "The so-called religion is to take all our obligations as God's commands."

Engels, on the other hand, said, "No religious doctrine can support a distant society."

Religion, the word seems to have a sense of distance. But if you mention the church, you will certainly be familiar with it. As more and more people in China began to believe in Christianity, various churches with different styles appeared in the streets. On Sundays, people on the early bus can always be seen getting off at the church station. Everyone's face is full of smiles, which seems more like a sense of satisfaction brought by faith. In addition to true Christians, many people choose to go to some famous churches when traveling abroad, such as St. Kyle's Cathedral, Mexico Cathedral and so on. Careful people may consult some guidebooks before going to church. Most people know almost nothing before they go, just to feel a foreign culture. In fact, it doesn't matter, the focus of travel is the mentality.

In this series of articles, I will not introduce you to complicated religious knowledge, but carefully select some interesting things in the church to share with you, slowly unveil this sacred veil and discover those interesting little things in the church.

In the first issue, we will talk about different shapes of stone carvings in the church. What do they mean?

Before introducing interesting stone carvings, let's learn about the history of the church. If you are bored, you can skip this paragraph.

In the early days, there were no churches. At the beginning of the 7th century, the mainstream of national culture was controlled by a group of non-Christians, namely, Anglo-Saxons, Jutes, Britons (brillon) and picts. After the demise of the Western Roman Empire, some tiny religious groups were left behind, but they didn't seem to care. As there was no church, Christians at that time prayed and worshipped at home. In the sixth century, Celtic missionaries from Ireland began to try to change the beliefs of non-Christian tribes. In 597 BC, the missionaries sent by Pope John Kerry I arrived, and Christianity officially rose in Britain. Missionaries brought religious symbols, one is the cross, and the other is the church built on the holy land of non-Christians. This is a strange phenomenon. Whenever a church rises, people will find many things that do not belong to it.

The history of English churches should begin with the altar, which is a representative object. The altar is usually placed far from the easternmost part of the church and carefully covered with holy garments. Many people ignore the importance of the altar and think that the altar is built for the church. In fact, the church was built for the altar. The early altar was placed next to the cross in the open air, but in order to protect the altar from the wind and the sun, the first church appeared.

With people paying more and more attention to the Eucharist, generation after generation began to explore new ways to design and decorate churches to show the glory of God. But in fact, the church not only shows the glory of God, but also tells the story of mankind. The earliest representative works came from Anglo-Saxons, who once built hundreds of churches, but now there are only a few for us to explore and appreciate.

Knock on the blackboard! Here comes the point ~

Everything in the church will make you feel like a spring breeze, one question after another.

The early church design style in England embodies a psychedelic mixture of the divine world and the animal world, but at the same time, the eyes of the characters in the church paintings are looking up at heaven and expressing a desire.

On both sides of the west gate of Dearhurst Church and the arch leading to the Anglo-Saxon altar are animal sculptures carved with stones. From the details, they were painted with colors before, which may be yellow, black, red and so on. We guess that the holes in the eyes, noses and ears of these animal sculptures were inlaid with precious stones at that time. Walking into this church, candlelight shines and these animal sculptures are lifelike.

For thousands of years, people have been exploring the secrets of these stone carvings. Some people say it is to guide the devout believers, while others say it is to warn and resist the dark demons outside. Everyone has different views on them, but without exception, these views are all towards light and God.

This is the stone carving of the Virgin Mary, which stands above the church gate. Over the years, countless people have walked through this door and passed under this interesting stone carving. We can see the virgin Mary holding a shield in her hand to protect Jesus in her belly.

Outside the temple of Durhurst, there are many interesting and incredible stone carvings.

This is the guardian angel of Deerhurst, so there are 12 stone carvings guarding around the temple of Deerhurst. Angels have different forms in different times, including soldiers, holy spirits, messengers and so on.

1066, the French Duke William conquered pevensey, and the Anglo-Saxon church civilization gradually disappeared. William not only brought his footman and the system he invented, but also brought many extravagant forms of worship. This form needs more etiquette, music and queues, so a new church style came into being.

William divided the land on the border between England and Wales to his relatives, and his family built two buildings on this land, one is a castle and the other is a church.

There are countless stone carvings in this church with different shapes and many versions of explanations.

Green man, green man. No one knows the true origin of green people, they almost exist only in churches. The most distinctive thing is that the faces of these stone carvings are all green plants growing, and some even grow small bushes directly. There are many pious explanations for green men in history:

Legend has it that Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden against God's will. They secretly carried some seeds of the tree of knowledge. After Adam died, his son Seth planted these seeds in Adam's mouth. Later, these seeds germinated slowly, grew into a big tree, and were finally crucified by Jesus.

Another explanation is that the green man himself is Adam, because it seems that he can grow without water or something. This statement is a bit mysterious, but it also has certain significance.

In other words, it is said that Adam is not dead at all, but they are alive. We can see that the expressions of green people in the church are exaggerated, basically screaming, laughing or staring blankly. There is some truth in this statement.

The stone carving beside the south gate is a kind of unrestrained beauty. This kind of stone carving often appears in English churches. A Victorian critic thought she was an ignorant girl who opened her heart to the devil. In fact, this is the goddess Sheila Naji in the traditional Irish belief statue. At that time, it was regarded as a warning to promiscuity for women to show their private parts to others.

These three groups of stone carvings recorded some celebrations at that time: one was playing an instrument, two were wrestling, and one was performing acrobatics. So, what if you imagine them as demons? Look at these three pictures again.

So this group of stone carvings can be regarded as a record of celebrations, a warning to the devil, or just for fun.

On this stone carving, the animal's horns are facing down. We can see many similar stone carvings on the beams of the church. According to medieval fables, wild goats in Alps and North America will protect themselves with horns when they fall from the mountains, just as humans will wear helmets to protect themselves, symbolizing the way of human self-redemption.

The lecture platforms in the church are all eagle bases. Why? The fable records that the eagle is the king of the bird kingdom and created by God. It is the only animal that can look directly at the sun. Of course, it is more appropriate to use animals that can look directly at the light of God as a platform for speech.

Gannet, it is said that gannet, an animal, pecks open its chest when feeding the next generation and raises it with blood. And when their children die, they will wrap their children with blood and lead them to rebirth. This act of giving birth to children with blood is regarded as a heart-to-heart relationship with God.

These stone carvings in the church are so mysterious that they seem to understand in a trance, but they seem to understand nothing. In fact, it doesn't matter if the mystery is not mysterious. Don't you think the whole belief itself is mysterious? We don't need to define them. Everyone who sees them will have a unique conclusion.

At the end of the first episode, an elder said that we were led to believe something. In fact, we can't find specific words and poems to prove their existence, but I don't think it's important.

This article is organized from the BBC documentary How to Read the Church.