ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on two examples from the biblical world. Thereafter, he shall take a rather different pair from the world of art and architecture, before concluding with consideration of a number of contrasting approaches to light in the modern, scientific world. He offers two case studies; first, the identification of God with darkness, and a similar identification with cloud and shadow. Darkness is thus once again being used to evoke the divine, and with it an accompanying sense of awe and mystery. He considers other two examples, both indicative of a more complex understanding of the metaphor of light, with God not necessarily found in light at its most intense or strongest. One concerns how Gothic architecture's rationale in light is found not to be quite so straightforward as is commonly supposed; the other, the way in which Christ at his weakest comes to be regarded as the greatest focus of light.
