The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church

by Margaret Visser

Book Overview

Margaret Visser's desire to find answers to her own questions -- as a traveler, a believer, and an insatiable "anthropologist of everyday life" -- led her to undertake this unique and revelatory book. Guiding the reader through a church outside Rome, Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura, she draws upon history, theology, anthropology, and folklore to illuminate the spiritual meanings embedded in its architecture.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0002557398
• ISBN13: 9780002557399
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: HarperFlamingo Canada
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Religion: A*Live* Imagining

One of the reviews on the back of this book states that every reader will be able to pinpoint at the exact point that s/he becomes hooked by the text. For me, this point wasn't until about halfway through the book, in chapter 5, when I realized that a reading of a church building is not like a reading of a book: the imagination presences itself front-and-center, rather than lurking in the background, masked by a self-proclaimed "objectivity". The religious imagination embodies itself in the artwork, architecture and ceremony that *is* the church. This book is a thick narrative that works on multiple levels: architectural and artistic, theological and socio-historical. The church building itself is far from static; in letting the church speak of what is timeless, it itself enters into time: ancient altars and recent restorations, classical Byzantine mosaics and Baroque-inspired paintings all inhabit the same space of the church. Each generation, each culture has done something to become a part of the history of the church, and therefore a part of the next generation. The church becomes a shared narrative, so to speak: a structural representating of communion. The book functions as both an introduction to Christianity, and more specifically Roman Catholicism. Visser situates her text within the larger history of the Roman church, a world filled with saints and mystics, ascetics, martyrs and power struggles, sacraments and quasi-magical popular beliefs. It is a world in which the dead still have a presence in the present, and in which heaven and earth meet at particular times and in particular places - and more in the church than anywhere else. What appears more than anything else in Visser's work is that of the Roman Catholic imagination. Although certain theologians were largely systematic, the wider history of the Roman Catholic church speaks a different story: sacred time and sacred space, and an experience of the mysterium tremendum. It is within this sense of the sacred, embodied temporally and spatially in the liturgy and the sacraments, and continually witnessed to by the church building, which holds the people whose histories give rise to it, its development and change, restoration and remembering over time. Visser's work is a brialliant book that will be enriched by those who come with prior knowledge, and will enrich those who pursue more knowledge afterwards. One will learn about Christian theology and history, and its socio-historical imaginings throughout time. Visser's text works outside of simplistic - even if rigorous - textual analyses, and looks to history and its representations in space and time. A brialliant work for those with heart, mind and spirit: imagination.

what lies above and beneath

The other reviewers on this page have admirably described this book's content, strengths, and weaknesses. As an inveterate visitor of ancient churches, what I've found invaluable is Visser's thorough lesson on how to read a church, especially an Italian Catholic one. I disagree that Sant'Agnese fuori le Mure is an "ordinary" church; its layers of history, folklore, language, mysticism, and symbolism have accumulated over many centuries, and the building itself is a treasure. Reading Geometry of Love answered many of the questions I had about religious, archaeological, and artistic traditions and also raised some new ones. But now when I enter an old Italian church I am better equipped to notice and interpret its many layers of nuance and meaning.

A quintessential read!

The relatively simple Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura just outside the walls of Rome comes under the scrutiny of history, theology, anthropology & folklore to illuminate its physical & spiritual architecture.Margaret Visser guides us through this organic aged basilica, from its apse to its nave, its catacombs to its campanile, she opens our eyes to its symbolism, its layers of religious expression, the Christian fascination with lambs & virgins, the meaning of martyrdom & the provenance of relics.Effortlessly, this tranquil & earnest author moves us back through the ages to reveal, like the ancient stones she walks past, the erstwhile Roman attitudes toward our mortal remains & then through Christianity's infancy, in all its forms & purposes.Part archaeology, part love story, part poetry & part tourist guide, The Geometry of Love is a quintessential read & I fell in love with columns all over again!A superb example of writing about what you know - this author bequeaths us a unique & enfolding account of the why, where, who, when & what of a charming house of worship.

geometry in architecture, history and faith

Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura Church stands just outside the old walled city of Rome, built, at its lowest levels, into the catacombs which surrounded the city. It is dedicated to a 4th Century Saint, a 12 year old slain for her refusal to marry the son of a Roman Prefect. Built in the 7th Century and continuously modified, it incorporates the layers of aesthetic, cultural, theological influences of the centuries, organically revealing Rome's tumultuous history. It is galvanized, though, by the reverence for this child martyr by its artisans. Visser's study is an exploration of the physical manifestation of the mysteries of faith. Like the church itself the book is more than the sum of its parts. The author searches for context and meaning, through the ecclesiastical history behind each of the church's major components-- nave, narthex, altar, tomb--. The author's descriptions convey the pageantry and the sometimes violent drama of the little church succinctly. Difficult to categorize, it is an in-depth look at how the church's schema reflected the attitudes of its congregants. Visser presents a spiritual anthropology measured in the church's marble, masonry and frescoes. She synthesizes the form and symbolism of its architecture. The book is filled with anecdotes of the inspiration Sant'Agnese has had on the faithful, vividly exposing its human dimensions. This intensively researched, rigorously constructed book is a fascinating read, be your interest historical, religious or artistic.