# Universe of Stone

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- Book: [Universe of Stone](https://www.bookquiver.com/philip-ball/universe-of-stone) ([Universe of Stone.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/philip-ball/universe-of-stone.md))
- Authors: [Philip Ball](https://www.bookquiver.com/philip-ball)
- Publisher: Vintage Digital
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-14-4649-975-7
- Published: 2011-08-31
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

In the twelfth century, Christians in Europe began to build a completely new kind of church - soaring, spacious monuments flooded with light from immense windows. These were the first Gothic churches, the crowning example of which was the cathedral of Chartres: a revolution in thought embodied in stone and glass, and a bridge between the ancient and modern worlds. In Universe of Stone, Philip Ball explains the genesis and development of the Gothic style. He argues that it signified a profound change in the social, intellectual and theological climate of Western Christendom. As the church represented nothing less than a vision of heaven on earth, this shift in architectural style marked the beginning of the argument between faith and reason which continues today, and of a scientific view of the world that threatened to dispense with God altogether.