Go Towards the Light my children....

Yayyyyy. Now we get to talk about a huge connection between Philosophy and Art! (Gasp!)

First, we'll look at St. Augustine. St. Augustine believed that humans must remove the faulty impressions of sensory knowledge to attain divine wisdom. By looking inward and then upward for grace, one can achieve salvation and happiness. He used the ideas of Plotinus ("The Body is both the agent and prison of the soul") in Christian doctrine. He believed that there was a divine spark or piece of God's soul within everyone, and that is the universal good that allows us happiness.

This can connect to the Gothic order cathedrals in Art History. Gothic order cathedrals were built in order to let more light come in. It started with Abbot Suger, who was head of the church and monastery of St. Denis in France. He was also a devoted follower of Neo-Platonism, and tried to bring light into the church. He believed that by bringing light (which represented God) inside, God's presence would be brought in (both literally and metaphorically).

With these Gothic order churches, the stained glass windows with biblical stories on them would shine down as the light passed through. As a Christian individual, one would see the vision of what Jesus was talking about by these stories literally hitting you (the stained glass images would go on you by the light). Everyone can access God's good inside them by going to the church, and even the illiterate can learn. Through these images and the light, one can have God's presence, and they can access that little spark.

So basically, light was good. Light helped bring God's presence and access that little good.

^This was bad. It kept you from God.