ABSTRACT
A further part of the mental equipment for architects was a regard for things in nature, things in their particularity, and material itself. It was very different in their perception compared with our egocentric relation to nature. Nature does not mean a world over against the human soul. Rather the soul has the power to grasp the similitude of all things and all natures because its composition is analogous to theirs. Typically Jesus Christ holds in his left hand the book signifying that he is the Word. The Word is the eternal, creative and self-revealing Mind. He is the source, the author, compassing the end from the beginning. One way or another such understanding of Christ was incorporated in prominent positions in the cathedrals and churches, most often exactly on one of the principal axes defining the building - embodying and declaring it in the church.
