The Symbolism of the Christian Temple

That sacred art scarcely exists today is all too evident. We can perhaps speak of a “religious,” but certainly not a sacred art. True sacred art is not sentimental or psychological, but ontological and cosmological in nature. Sacred art cannot be the result of the feelings, fantasies, or even “thought” of the artist — as with most modern art — but rather the translation of a reality largely surpassing the limits of human individuality. The temple of former times was an “instrument” of recollection, joy, sacrifice, and exaltation — first through the harmonious combination of a thousand crafted symbols, then by offering itself as a receptacle to the symbols of the liturgy. For the temple and the liturgy together constitute a prodigious formula capable of preparing man to become aware of the descent of Grace, of the epiphany of the Spirit in corporeity. It is a matter of urgency, then, to recall what true sacred art is, especially since in the cultural wasteland of our age signs of resistance to its anarchy and subversion are manifesting themselves, and a pressing call is felt to recover the traditional conceptions that must form the basis and condition of any restoration.