Introduction

In portraying the battle to save the soul of Notting Hill – to save the identity of the city – G. K. Chesterton set it in a medieval time-warp. Achievements in medieval church architecture and medieval theology alike had extraordinary power and enduring value. The theology may be a less immediately accessible field than the architecture, for while it is text-based the writings seem like dark books in this century. The main handicap to critical study of medieval architecture is the lack of contemporary texts – there are no treatises dedicated to the subject as there are in the fields of grammar, poetry, music, optics, astronomy, and others. For deductive argument the theology provides the essential frame of reference. Connections between things spiritual and things material are found expressed in the writings. In architectural history Otto von Simson comes close to opening up the implications of a more rigorous theology.