The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation

Episode 106a - Sacred Architecture: Gaudí's Journey from Atheism to Faith

• Paul

Share episode

Send us a text

What happens when an atheist architect builds a cathedral? Antoni Gaudí's journey from skeptic to saint-in-the-making reveals how sacred spaces can transform not just visitors, but their creators.

The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona stands as perhaps the most extraordinary example of theology expressed through architecture in the modern world. As we explore Gaudí's masterpiece, we discover how this intensely committed artist approached his craft – studying natural forms and incorporating them into a structure that would "preach" the gospel through stone and light. Rather than imposing abstract human concepts onto the landscape, Gaudí sought to work with "the grain of reality," creating spaces that amplify creation's testimony to its Creator.

Most remarkable is Gaudí's personal transformation. Ten years into constructing this monumental basilica, the architect himself was converted by his own creation. From that moment, his entire lifestyle changed – he abandoned his former luxuries, lived austerely in the cathedral workshop, and poured his complete devotion into creating a space where countless others might encounter Christ as he had. Deliberately designing a project too vast to complete in his lifetime, Gaudí viewed the very process of building as spiritually formative, wanting generations of workers to experience the conversion he found.

We draw fascinating parallels to other sacred spaces that shaped civilizations, particularly Constantinople's Hagia Sophia, which famously converted the Rus people when their emissaries reported: "We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth." Both structures accomplished something profound – helping visitors see reality properly, with Christ at the center of a cosmic vision that transforms how we understand everything else. For those intrigued by these intersections of faith, architecture and cultural formation, explore more through the Global Church History Project, which illuminates Christian stories from every continent and era.

https://www.patreon.com/c/GlobalChurchHistory/


The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the next episode of the Christ Centered Cosmic Civilization podcast. And we've been finishing up this long series on the Council of Nicaea with PJ from the Global Church History Project. And then we're about to launch into another long series looking at the theology of the human body and I've already recorded some of those episodes and I guess pretty intense looking at the meaning from a biblical perspective of parts of the human head and then the human body and organs and things. I hope everyone will enjoy that series. But before we do that, we also we kind of wanted to partly pay tribute to all the work that PJ does with the Global Church History Project and ask him to share about a couple of great figures from church history. When we were thinking about this we were kind of overwhelmed because he literally has hundreds of them that he's researched and written on and every day with the Global Church History Project they produce. Well, most people only ever see the little bits that are shared on Facebook, which is usually a couple of paragraphs and a prayer and a prayer. But from others of us we know that there's usually kind of like an essay on each of these characters that are shared and immense research is put into those, and we'll ask him a little bit more about that later as we go. But we've picked two characters and we're going to ask PJ to take us deeper into them, beyond the couple of paragraphs that we may have seen on Facebook or whatever. And the first one we'll look at is Gaudi.

Speaker 1:

Now, this is a Spanish person and he's like part of the contemporary modern world, 20th century figure. Well, what's his full name? So he's the Venerable. He just got venerated this year. Does that mean he's officially a saint? He's on the process, yeah, yeah, he's on the conveyor belt heading towards official satan. Now, of course, from a protestant point of view, all christians are saints and of course, everyone knows that every christian is a saint. But with that process, what they're doing is they're saying, okay, that may be true, but there's certain people who are, so we are so manifestly obviously model Christians. And then they, the Catholic Church, does this and Orthodox do it in different ways. But it's a way of saying here are some people who we wish to hold up as model Christians. So this has happened for this guy recently. Yeah, and he's on this process of being elevated in that way, and you give it a bit of time. So there's nothing. No secrets are going to come out. We've had some of these. Oh yeah, that's true, there's plenty of living Christians at the moment and we don't need to wait till they're dead for all the skeletons to come out. There's an absolute army of skeletons coming out of closets for a lot of people who are supposed to be Christians around at the moment.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, leaving that aside, gaudi is not such a person. Now, then I thought, what are his dates? He was born in the 19th century, yeah, yeah, 1852. 1852, and he lived right through till, uh, the uh, 1926, 1926, so it's that sort of 75 year period sort of time. Now, then he, as far as I was aware, he was an atheist, but he's famous people. If people know, they maybe don't know a lot about him, but they do know his work.

Speaker 1:

What's, what is it that he's famous for? The thing he's most famous for is the Basilica of the Holy Family, the Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, although he's done loads of things all around the city and and in other places in the world. He actually designed a skyscraper in new york that hasn't been built yet, but, um, hopefully one day it will. Uh, but yeah, that's, his most famous thing is this basilica, like a presentation of the gospel in architectural form, right in the middle of the sea. So so it's interesting that we think about that, because of course, this is invented by God, like the living God, going right back to when there was the tabernacle, which was a sort of temporary structure that embodied a model of the universe filled with theological truth, and the idea was for people to come see it, meditate on it and be drawn deep into theological knowledge and encounter with Jesus Christ through a building. And then later, when that building is put into brick form, david wanted to do it, but because he was a man of violence and that's interesting that the Lord has this, the Bible has this kind of view that sometimes violence was necessary but the Lord kind of thinks there's no future to that, that's not how we're going to do things forever. So David's not allowed to be part of this architectural work and it has to be handed over to Solomon, who doesn't have it, doesn't do any warfare or anything, um, but he builds this incredible building which is this embodiment, again, of theology, a vision of the universe, a vision of Jesus. So all of that way of thinking that a building can embody the most profound theological truths.

Speaker 1:

And then that happens at different times in different cathedrals and works out history, and this one might be the most famous example of this in the modern age, for europeans anyway. So tell us about this. This here's the guy. It does this people go and see. It's often when people say are you going going to Barcelona, they either say are you going to see the football team or are you going to see the cathedral? Those are the two things that tourists go to Barcelona for. So he's right up there with the football team in terms of fame for tourists.

Speaker 1:

What is it about this building then? What is he? What was he? Because I heard, I mean, I did. I don't think he was a Christian, like I didn't think he was a Christian when he started this anyway. So what was he trying to do and what was the point of such a like? What this vision is so extraordinary? Tell us about this cathedral and his journey with it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so he was like a far left kind of communist, atheist, anti-clerical agitator sort of guy when he was at uni, and so we got very embroiled in this modernist movement of architecture, but in barcelona, or the catalan regions in particular, that had a different kind of form where it was all about appreciating nature and his mum was very pious and he was named after his mum, antonia, and she would always make sure because he was very sickly as a kid she always made sure he did lots of walks in nature and read lots of Bible to him. So he had this appreciation for nature and he had lots of knowledge about the Bible, even if he didn't believe it as a student. So he is all about this, about getting all the latest technology and making it make natural stuff that appears in nature in architecture so lots of fish and waves and that sort of stuff you can see. And loads of this stuff is still around in Barcelona. You can go in loads of different places and you'll find little bits that gaudi's done of this weird sort of uh stuff that looks like it came out of nature but it's all in buildings, and so we already, before he even starts on the cathedral, he's developing a manner of trying to make architecture naturalistic or organic rather than a kind of intrusion, and I guess that that probably comes out of some of these general.

Speaker 1:

He has this kind of secular or even atheistic dissatisfaction with the modern world where he might see that as an invasion or a colonization of nature. And then he's trying to say there's a better way of thinking of nature. And we in this podcast are always like, yeah, there definitely is. But initially he kind of doesn't see the really big picture that he's going to. But he's learning to say look at the natural world and think now, how is it done, how are structures formed in the creation?

Speaker 1:

And in a way he's listening to the sermon of creation, isn't he? Without fully grasping what he's listening to, but he's being impacted by the divine architect. And it's something I think we've talked about before where when the Bible talks about creation preaching to us, it's not that creation gives us the ability to do Greek philosophy and then that is natural theology. So the Bible does sometimes speak about natural theology, but it's never that it's always like look at trees and the sun and look at this sort of thing. That is going to preach a natural sermon to you. Just sort of logic isn't, because actually logic's different for everyone and no one has any wisdom. So Gaudi is someone who actually does. He's probably the only natural theologian we would like, because he's the only one who actually does it the way he's actually trying to pay attention to it. And then he's starting to test that with little projects.

Speaker 1:

But what makes him ever start something as absolutely stupendous as this cathedral? Well, basically the this cathedral. It gets um started by this bishop who wants to, who looks at all these people who are atheists and radicals, like gaudy, and thinks like we can't be having all this. This used to be a christian country. We've got to turn things around. A big cathedral will give us this christian identity and will convert people and it does, as we've said, like a brilliant idea and it pays off. So it gets this one christian architect.

Speaker 1:

But they like fall out and he drops out like less than a year in, so like basically no work's been done. And then he just think, well, I need some guy. So he just hires Gaudi and like Gaudi realizes later this was like strongly the hand of Providence working towards his own salvation. But he's just hired because he's just the guy here. He's kind of Barcelona's best architect and he's got the guy here. He's kind of barcelona's best architect and he's got new ideas, he's exciting, he's prepared to tackle a big project. Yeah, right, so he's just hired. Basically he's the only guy left. Almost it's like a fluke of uh history, but actually you know, it's the divine emperor at work. Yeah, so, yeah, he does that.

Speaker 1:

But even for ten years into this cathedral project, he still isn't a Christian. But then, just as he finishes, so he's still an atheist. Well, for ten years building this building, that is this declaration of the worship and reality of God throughout the whole of creation, but he just doesn't believe in this God at all. But ten years in, then what happens? He finishes this crypt, crypt, and then he just ripped yeah, right, right, and he just suddenly encounters jesus so strongly and because obviously he he's so intense when you read anything, because that in in the post, if you do subscribe and read it, I've got loads of quotations from him, like most of his hagiographies, in his own words, um, so let me just explain what PJ's saying there, the Global Church History Project on the Facebook.

Speaker 1:

Each day you get just a couple of paragraphs where it's a very brief summary and for some people that's all they can handle. They're like that's enough. A little glimpse of church history is enough for me and that is what that's for. But behind each of those there's like a whole essay and sometimes it's almost like a mini book and sometimes there's vast amount of research. I remember this particular one. There was a huge amount of research went into it. And then if you are a subscriber to the global church history project through patron uh, you, you get free access to all this material, just acres and acres of original research.

Speaker 1:

And with this one, that, this big body of material, there's loads of quotations from him where he's explaining what his go, what he went through and what his vision was and what. Yeah, sorry, go on, carry on. So he's this very intense person who gives everything. So if you read his quotations, everything, anything he talks about, anything he does, he gives everything to and he doesn't do any halfway houses. So one of these um biographies I quote in it says basically, even just with his politics, like he was this communist who, uh, but then later in life he becomes this like radical, wanting to bring back medieval feudal hierarchy and everything. So he goes from being like from one end of the political spectrum to the other. He spent no time in the middle. He never does like halfway houses and you know that sort of thing he's always. Everything is as intense as it could possibly be, um, to the point where he's like well, you used to be able to just cross roads because pedestrians have right of way, so we always refuse to look either way. When he crossed the road, uh, he was just like yeah, I have right away, so I'm not going to give him the he's sort of. He's just like that. Everything was so intense.

Speaker 1:

If he has a belief, he acts out on it. So, as he's building this cathedral, even though he's not a believer yet, he's like I've got to make it a perfect expression of what I've been hired to do, this theology and nature kind of expressing its love for Jesus and all this. I've got to study all that. And so he makes this like sermon and this experience of what it's like to come to communion, all in the architecture. And then so it's like he's preached to himself. But, as he says, a lot of times, when people are learning from nature to do architecture, they're cooperating with the creator. So it's like he feels like he's allowed. Even before he was a Christian, he allowed Jesus to use him as an instrument, and then Jesus uses himself to preach to himself, his own sort of architecture. So he does as he finishes this first bit of the cathedral and then he's just sort of in it and he's crafted everything to be this expression of the gospel. He hears the gospel because he knows what he's doing. In a sense he knows what to listen for and he's created this amazing presentation of the gospel and he's the first convert of it.

Speaker 1:

But there are so many over the years who have been, but his life just totally changes. So he was this very decadent person before and he becomes this incredibly austere sort of person who just in the end he just lives in the workshop of the cathedral and lived as like a beggar and he would go around just asking for funds for the cathedral and all of this, and he only ever ate like greens and yogurts and that sort of stuff, and never had any drugs, like coffee or alcohol, nothing he had. You know, very, yeah very strict on everything. Some people said he didn't even have sugar, but I've seen some people say he did have occasionally, but he basically he didn't, and so, yeah, he just becomes so intense but about this.

Speaker 1:

And then he sets up a school. So in the saga of Familia he gets a school there so all the workers can have their kids' education, looked after and everything, and then, yeah, there's just loads, his life totally changes. Yeah, so that's the thing. Then he kind of lays this huge foundation from nature, then from actually studying theology, then he encounters Jesus himself and then he finally fully understands what it is that he's doing. And then, as that develops, the cathedral builds and builds and builds, and then I suppose his heart is ever more in it, not just his mind, but his heart, and it becomes itself not just an embodiment of the way of Jesus in the what's going on in the building, with helping, education, everything. And so it's this amazing fusion of theological vision, artistic eye and an encounter with Jesus. And it's in that one of the fascinating things about the building is that many people have encountered Jesus. Isn't that true? Like people come to see the tourist attraction, but that they, they have this experience that he himself had. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And there's an interesting idea he has where he feels like so many people long for Christendom when they're in these old Gothic ruins. And he was thinking, what's that about? And he thinks it's like basically, jesus takes over these bits of architecture and puts his own architecture of trees and branches and stuff and then it like really comes alive. So he's like, let's just what jesus ends up doing with gothic stuff. Let's just do from the outset. And he makes you know the whole thing's tuned so that in gregorian chanting has the perfect acoustics and all of that. So it's all designed to be a proper lived in church.

Speaker 1:

And so he wants to make sure it doesn't become like a so I think it is a UNESCO site or whatever. But he doesn't want it to be that sort of thing where it's just like, yeah, it's so depressing, isn't it, where a great cathedral just becomes like a National Trust shop and things. It's so depressing when that happens, and obviously that's not happened. It's still a living place of genuine Christian worship. Often I get depressed going to cathedrals. First I'm excited because I can see the theology that's embedded in it, and then when I'm wandering around I see what is currently going on in a lot of cathedrals is so depressingly almost pagan at times. I was in one not long ago and they literally had what all I can describe as a pagan act of worship kind of symbolized in the center. Anyway, um, he's prevented all that because it's structurally and holistically christian and and though it is, you know, it is still got that living reality of jesus and he's trying to. He was trying to build it in such a way that he wanted to speed up the process whereby a building would become like deeply sacred, and so let's not wait 500 years for the process. I'm going to build it so that it's fast track to that feeling. I'm going to build it so that it's fast-tracked to that feeling.

Speaker 1:

And, of course, we can think about something like the Hagia Sophia that was in Constantinople. That was built with that same agenda and with the same effect, wasn't it? Was it the Russians came in? Yeah, the baptism of the Russ is one of the best moments in history, and it was a very similar idea, but, like, based on different nature. In a way, it's designed to look like a mountain the haggis of it, so they've added minarets to it, which ruins this.

Speaker 1:

So if you go now, you don't really get that impression. They've added loads of rubbish to it. But if you sometimes get like a, an artist depiction of what it actually looked like as it does look like a sort of mountain in this sort of area, uh, but it's like a mountain of god. It actually looked like as it's supposed to. It does look like a sort of mountain in this sort of area, but it's like a mountain of God. It's like you do feel like you've gone to that mountain when there's a send Zion kind of thing, where there's the better blood than Abel or speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Speaker 1:

That sort of you do live that out in Hagia Sophia, because that's the nature around them and they're able to like, make a man-made thing, that's like with what Jesus has designed in the rest of the country, and so going with the grain of reality. Yeah, so much of the modern and post-modern world is desperately trying to go against the grain of reality and therefore everything fails or it's so pathetic and so depressing and like we were all stumbling around, like reluctant to even exist in such a world. Whereas when you go with the grain of reality, as gaudy was doing, as justinian was doing and so on, how joyful, how, uh, like it lifts us up to be part of a society that's been designed and buildings that have been designed with the grain of reality. Yeah, yeah, and you can imagine being one of those, russell being gaudy himself, um, at you know, when he's in that crypt having this encounter with jesus, that it's suddenly like all this nature we love paying attention to and we're thinking what does it all mean? And then you just see it expressed like this is what trees are doing, this is what birds are doing, this is what the sky is doing. You see it expressed properly and then suddenly it's like all of creation makes sense If we, you know, if we, creation alone can do it. But then as we have, you know, we need buildings, we need ordinary life and everything, and then that can warp how we understand nature. We kind of twist nature Because we have houseplants and things. We always put nature where we are, but if our theology is wrong, then we're ruining this message that nature is supposed to be preaching to us. When we understand it, then suddenly it's like all of reality just clicks together and you get.

Speaker 1:

You get to hear the sermon, perhaps for the first time, like gaudy did and the russians did, um, you know, you do get to hear it, and that's one of the wonderful things with proper christian architecture. Well, just quickly tell us the story of the, the rust, that they what. They were trying to figure out what's the right way to meet gods. Did they yeah, and they um. So then they'd sent people all over the world to different churches. They went to western europe and they felt similarly to gaudy, that to god.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'll actually repeat gaudy's whole quotation, okay, because he says gothic architecture becomes expressive only in the state of ruin, half covered with weeds and ivy, and contemplated in moonlight or at dusk. So there's a feeling amongst like North Africans, but then, especially like Augustine, found this sort of European architecture very dark and sad. But loads of Africans it's funny that even as it was being built, it was already old, yeah, and these russians felt the same, or the rest, um, they, the east slavic confederacy based in kiev, they felt the same thing about um gothic architecture. They're like, well, this is quite gloomy and sad or it's Romanesque at the time. So they thought it's powerful, there's obviously a spiritual reality here. But even as they're building it, it's already old, yeah, yeah, it already feels nostalgic, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then they didn't like Islam because they'd have to give up all the nicest food and alcohol and they were just like you can't have Russians without a vodka or something, yeah. So that was just a no-go, although I don't think they even particularly appreciated Mosul that much, but I think the no-go was that. And then it was similar things with Judaism. But I think they also found synagogues uninspiring, like architecture was throughout it all. They were like mosques, aren't it? Synagogues, aren't it? And they even thought gothic architecture, isn't it? Um, you know, we'll say more positive things about gothic architecture in another episode. Yeah, we will, because we do love it, and gaudy kind of loves it too, doesn't he? But anyway, yeah, but the rust, anyway. They went and looked at all these examples and whatever pluses and minuses they they weren't convinced, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then the Hagia Sphere. They go in and they say, when it was nighttime, and the Hagia Sphere, because it's all got this gold all throughout the inside, or it did and lots of lights, candles and lamps and all sorts of things, so it's just beaming. And they say, as you're sailing towards it, loads of sailors thought I thought it was midnight, but it looks like it's just beaming. And they say, as you're sailing towards it, loads of sailors thought I thought it was midnight, but it looks like it's dawn because the, the haggis beard just looks like a sun. It's this mountain that radiates like the sun and that alone lets you live through genesis.

Speaker 1:

You know, when you, when we hear about that mountain where god lives, um, and Revelation Ezekiel, where it pops up again. You it's like you get to see it. It's been expressed here on earth, uh, so people get that, just as you're sailing towards it. And then you can only imagine what it's like once you go in um, how, yeah, just how bright that light is. And then the you know, as it's all designed to reverberate properly and it's all you know. You get caught up in it. And then the incense you see your prayers going up, and then you see that massive picture of Jesus in the dome looking down from the highest heavens and he's in charge. That's that icon called Christ Pantocrator, the ruler of everything. He's looking down, he's in charge, and then it's just that way that it's representing the sort of terrain of the area and a terrain that the Slavs were probably more familiar with, and then just saying, look how it all is under Jesus' control. So then, once they leave the building and they look around at mountains and all the other features represented in this basilica, then they just suddenly are remembered yeah, jesus is the Pantocrator and all this authority flows down and reaches even this. So all of this is under his control, and they've just seen that presented and beautifully, and so it doesn't leave them as they leave the building. The message the building left them with and the perspective on how to properly see creation didn't leave them, and so they couldn't help but go back to their home territories, or even the countryside on the way back there, and just see everything in this new light, with jesus in control, and so that's that. Yeah, that was their conversion, and after seeing that, they just think that's it, we've all. So there's a mass baptism. They go through this river. Everyone has to be baptized. It's like that's it now. So it's like so that kind of experience of a building that sets out a Christ-centered cosmic civilization. That's kind of what Gaudi's done in Barcelona.

Speaker 1:

Did he manage to complete it all in his own lifetime? No, and he said he didn't want it. He wanted it to be such a big project there was no way he could see it finished. He wanted it to be the proverbial tree that's planted that you'll never sit under its shade. He says quite a few. He doesn't say that phrase planted that you'll never sit under its shade. He says quite a few. He doesn't say that phrase. That is someone else. But he says a lot of things like that, where it's like I'm passing this on to future generations and I've got it, because just the building of it converted him. So he wants lots and lots of people to have exactly his experience, to be building in that workshop where he first met jesus, um, and yeah, to come to Christ that way, because just the build, the process of building, is a converting experience and he wanted that to be shared with as many people as possible.

Speaker 1:

So he wanted it to be far too big and complex a project and he also wanted to make sure their workers had it a little easy as well. They weren't being worked to the bone sort of thing, so it wasn't, and they certainly haven't been, because they're little easy as well. They weren't being worked to the bone sort of thing, so it wasn't, and they certainly haven't been, because they're still working on it. Is it still being worked on even now? So it must be mostly complete now. I think there was a. I remember there was a festival where they reached a halfway point or something like that. In my lifetime this was a few years back.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so it it is still going on and if you go or if we go, we can still see the vision being formed. And he wanted that, this sense that it's something just as like the ongoing experience that creates a living thing, almost like that's still growing and developing, and he wanted that. So what an amazing individual Gaudi was, and he still preaches to us through this incredible building and it does help us to studying him, has helped us even now to get this sense of what cathedrals have always tried to do and some do it better than others, and so on. But this is one of the great ones of the whole world really, where it's really successfully embodying in architecture this huge vision of Jesus at the centre of the cosmic civilisation that he reigns over. And that going into such a building particularly when that building is inhabited by people who believe that and perform it in liturgy and preach it from the word and live it out in practice, when this building becomes a hub for word and sacrament and life, wow, how amazing that is. And you can see why such buildings had this effect of creating civilizations around them. They became like an engine of civilization for whole areas of countries and things, and that's what has happened for Barcelona, for barcelona in, in a way, and tourists come, experience it and go back. That's gaudy amazing.

Speaker 1:

So, uh, we were gonna cover another person, who was the other person we were going to cover, but we've run out of time. Yeah, we. There's a chinese martyr, although you'll be able to read I'm sure some of you will subscribe and you can read about him without any delay but there's a St Joseph from China. St Joseph I'm working on pronunciation so some of you will be listening. It's like that sounds nothing like it, but I'm doing my best. It's St Joseph of Chongda Peng, I think Something like that, and he was born in the 18th century and through to the 19th century, and he had not been a Christian, but he was. And this is before. There were the sort of Western missionaries that came to China, isn't it? Because people often think about Hudson Taylor and people like that? That was later, but there was Chinese Christians who were from a Catholic tradition in the main. It had been like that really since 15th century or 14th century or 13th, even, or even the 13th century, john of Montgorevenno and Marco Polo. He was a great missionary, marco Polo, yeah, missionary time.

Speaker 1:

So from the 13th century onwards, you had this re-revival of Christianity in the form of from the Catholic Church Previous to that, what was? It was often, would it be Church of the East. It was a kind of complex setup where people had a lot of the debates that divided churches outside of china didn't seem to divide them at all, and so you had people sharing communion from what we would think of as eastern orthodox or oriental orthodox or church of the East and Catholic and more, all just kind of in the same church. That is awesome vision, isn't it? That they would say, okay, we have slightly different ways of understanding how Jesus was fully divine and fully human or all in these kinds of questions. But you know, we all love him and he died for us and rose again, so let us feast on his body and blood together and let's not allow those things to divide us when we should be united in Holy Communion. It's an amazing thing that they experienced that, because you would normally say, oh well, the Oriental Orthodox Church of the East, eastern Orthodox Catholics. It was immensely difficult to get them all to take communion together. They just about managed it as Constantinople fell, you know, and they always say, oh, wasn't it amazing? For just one time we all managed to take communion together just before it was all destroyed. But that's what happened then in China. So that's all that long period and it'd be good. Look, we can't do it now.

Speaker 1:

I'm hoping our listeners are like come on, we want to know more about the history of Christianity in China. Well, you can. The Global Church History Project has loads of this in-depth essays and studies that cover different characters from Chinese history. We've got Japanese history. There's Koreans and all sorts of events from Chinese history. We've got Japanese history, there's Koreans and all sorts of events from church history. And then, although there's little snapshots on Facebook, as we've said, you get whole essays. In fact, for patrons, you get books free. There's literal whole books that are free to use. It's like a massive library.

Speaker 1:

So we wanted to take this episode. We were going to do two big saints from church history. This, the Chinese guy who was? He was an industrialist and then Chinese Christians witnessed to him and then he becomes a Christian and he becomes a tremendous evangelist and uses his wealth and power and influence to be a tremendous evangelist, and then people like uh give their lives in order to enable him to keep on working as an evangelist. Is that fair? Yeah, absolutely. He was absolutely beloved by christians at the time and then, ever since, he and you know, I think his grave's still there and people do visit it, go on pilgrimage to see it, and so, yeah, just an incredibly fruitful ministry. I always remember when you know the day when we study him, uh, because you have a distinctive picture of him that I always remember. So, um, we can't do him, though We've done a little snapshot of him and he's a wonderful Christian.

Speaker 1:

But what I would say to everyone who's listening that if you're interested in church history and going much further, like some people, they've done a bit of European church history or a bit of Mediterranean church history, but the whole vision is actually the vast majority of Christians down through the ages all over the world haven't been around the Mediterranean, immediately around the Mediterranean or Western Europe. They've been East Asia, all across Asia, the Eastern Europe, asia, africa, everything like that, and then you also cover Western Europe. I know you often give us access on the Global Church History Project. We find out about all kinds of saints and you often do Welsh saints as well and I've loved finding out about them and people in like Protestants like I'll admit to this where can be quite strong on, say, the first 300 years and then tend to pick up again in the 16th century and suddenly get quite good on church history again. But there's literally 1200 years where many, many protestants really hardly know anything at all, not even even about European church history. That's true, I'm afraid. But that in the Global Church History Project fills that in too. There's whole aspects of European church history there that get filled in.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, if you want to join that and it's what is just for interest sake if a person wanted to join and said I haven't got very much money, what's the minimum I would join at to be able to access this big library? So, at £5, you can access every post so far. Wow, just £5 a month and you're into the whole library, yeah. Or if you don't want to subscribe because you think that's a lot of commitment, we have options for just buying parts of it with bundles, right, the post together. So you can think I just want to learn about these sorts of saints. Uh, we're but and we'll have more bundles and stuff. So there's that. There's other ways to pay. And then you can buy the books on amazon or in the patreon store or you know, there's loads of different ways.

Speaker 1:

So I mean, check out, okay, I love that. I love the books as well, because some of the books focus on periods of the church year and now they come with recipes and all sorts of celebrations and recipes from all over the world. Anyway, look, I leave that with you. I enjoy accessing all these resources. It's had a huge impact on me. I enjoy accessing all these resources. It's had a huge impact on me, and we even try out these recipes in our home and things when we get to these parts of the church year. See what you think and we'll, in the next part of the podcast, we're going to start on this theology of the human body.