One of the great visionaries and pioneers of modern architecture, Le Corbusier was a master of light, declaring it both a fundamental basis of architecture and the key to personal well-being. In this portfolio of 160 photographs taken over 40 years, Henry Plummer captures Le Corbusier's inspired use of natural light in three of his greatest achievements: the small pilgrimage chapel at Ronchamp, the Dominican monastery of Sainte Marie de La Tourette, and the parish church of Saint-Pierre in Firminy-Vert, all in France. In these modest religious works Le Corbusier deploys light to create enchanted, emotionally charged spaces wedded to the cosmic rhythm of sunlight and season. Cosmos of Light reveals how the artist reimagined sacred space and charted new ways that buildings can both reveal and inhabit the universe around them.

Renowned photographer A. J. Meek takes the novitiate on an inspired visual journey with eighty-eight color photographs of the interiors of churches and synagogues located in south Louisiana, mostly along the lower Mississippi River valley. Tourists may crowd the famous European cathedrals such as Notre Dame in Paris and Westminster Abbey in London. Yet the splendors of local churches in America all too often remain cloistered and unheralded. Meek's beautiful photographs correct this oversight for Louisiana, a state that features a great many beautiful and long-standing holy places. Often incorporating long exposures and select framing, the images in the first section of Sacred Light encompass altars, chancels, and sanctuaries. The second section contains photographs of statues representing deities, angels, madonnas, and saints, often seen with intense color derived from stained-glass windows or artificial light. Light itself is the subject of the third and last section. In several photographs, light is transformed by a window into a kaleidoscope of color on a wooden pew or pulpit chair. Other times the light seems to radiate a living presence of its own. Additionally, the book includes an essay by Louisiana State University art historian and liturgical space consultant, Marchita B. Mauck. Sacred Light also contains photographs of some of the church and synagogue restoration projects after Hurricane Katrina. Meek relates that the now-famous storm of August 2005 was the shadow he was looking for that defines blessed light. He places emphasis on restoration, not destruction, as a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.

This book is intended to be a source of Light for those who are questioning their faith. It is simply a tool to help you find your sacred spiritual path in Life. What do you believe to be true that is untouchable, beyond doubt? Investigating your own treasured truths is an excellent place to begin your journey of illumination. What I know for sure is that a crisis can be the greatest gift. It is during our darkest moments that we can become extremely conscious of the precious Light within us. Let your wounds from Life reveal your authentic self by being a place for your Sacred Light to shine through. Losing my religion and discovering a profound faith in myself as a mystical being has convinced me that the greatest Love, purest Peace, and holiest Light must come from within. Love, Peace, and Light must be known in the very being of your Soul as the truth, and essence, of who you are in order to bestow genuine Love, Peace, and Light to others. Be the Light you want to see shining in this world so it can be reflected in every Soul you encounter. Breaking away from the Mormon Church created within me a profound yearning to speak my truth boldly, to live my Life unapologetically and authentically, to follow my heart unashamedly, and to contribute to the healing, and the encouragement, of others who are also finding their own way through this miraculous, mystical mystery called Life.

Let There Be Light celebrates the splendor of radiant Light that has been known, embodied and taught by mystics, saints and sages over the millennia. Readers at every level will enjoy this book for its insights and message of hope: Light is available to all who seek it with humility and grace. Within the world's religious scriptures, many significant passages involve light-be it the "burning bush" experience of the lawgiver Moses on Mount Sinai, the "light brighter than a thousand suns" of which the Bhagavad Gita speaks, or the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be filled with light" (Matthew 6:22, KJV). Numerous esoteric references to Inner Light appear not only in the scriptures of the distant past, but also within the personal experiential accounts by Masters, sages, and seers across the centuries, as well as wisdom stories and folktales from many of the world's cultural and ethnic traditions. We also draw attention to a number of significant related references and accounts by teachers and practitioners of the closely related phenomenon of Inner Sound, which is also known within various teachings or mystic lineages as "audible sound current," Naam, Word, "celestial music," or other descriptions. Testimonies are provide by persons who have experienced aspects of Inner Light and Sound in a variety of circumstances outside of formal religious or spiritual contexts. These may be precipitated, for example, by being profoundly moved by uplifting music or Nature, sudden personal epiphanies, near-death experiences (NDEs), out of body experiences (OBEs), and during the dying process itself. One common thread among great teachers, sages and practitioners of spiritual traditions have emphasized throughout the ages is that Inner Light and enlightenment can be most directly accessed by going within, utilizing the meditation, prayer and other contemplative practices. Today humankind collectively is faced with a host of great challenges: political, socio- economic, and ecological-which ultimately are spiritual in nature. Fortunately, possibilities for transformational changes are also plentiful. Increasing numbers of people of all ages around the planet individually and collectively, are seeking to tap into resources that will enhance self-understanding and recognition of a "deeper" shared level of consciousness within themselves and in the world. A number of questions emerge. Simply put, can enough persons of goodwill find sufficient common ground to pull together and live into being a unifying ethos for humanity? Will our daily thoughts, words and actions be consistent with the name of our species, homo sapiens (wise people)? What will it take to build a, nonviolent, sustainable world upon foundations of lovingkindness, compassion and social justice, beginning within ourselves, our families and communities, and expanding throughout the planet? It has becoming increasingly clear that there can be no real peace in the world until there is peace within and between religions, and it is encouraging in this regard to witness increased participation among the faith traditions in interfaith dialogue. Other harbingers of positive change include the interspiritual movement, which draws people from a wide range of perspectives, highlighting a growing awareness that the basic core of fulfilling spiritual experience draws from the same wellspring(s). When the word enlightenment is broken down into its separate components, its root meaning "in-the-light" can be envisaged as pointing to an often 'hidden treasure'. We sincerity hope that Let There Be Light can help contribute to thoughtful questioning, appreciative listening, and openhearted dialogue as seekers after truthful living come together to share their spiritual journeys with each other.

LISTEN TO ITS RHYTHMS WITH AN OPEN HEART The Book of the Holy Light reveals the nature of God in the form of the Son of God. The first chapter, The Testament of the Holy Light of God, opens the framework of existence in the body of God revealing the nature of light in the embrace of unity. The book continues with The Testament of the Son of God inviting the children of light to return home to the inner space of God. The next chapter, The Twelve Transformations of the Holy Light of God, awakens the inner transformations of consciousness transmuting the children of light into the body of God. Next, The Trans-portal Matrix of Divine Grace describes the inter-connecting matrix of consciousness binding the children of light in the body of God. The book continues with The Dimensions of Light opening the multi-dimensional universe to the children of God. The next chapter, The Forms of Ascending Light, triggers the mechanisms of ascension in the consciousness of the child of light. Finally, The Circle of Ascending Light weaves a tapestry of light around the children of God connecting them to the body of God. "This is the story of light told through revelation. To appreciate it fully you must set aside your intellect and, like poetry, listen to its rhythms with an open heart." Tony Ellis, award winning poet and author of There is Wisdom in Walnuts

Few American spiritual teachers of recent years have inspired others as lovingly as Ron Roth. After serving the Roman Catholic Church as a priest for twenty-five years, Roth left to pursue a more universal spirituality, teaching the possibility of a one-to-one relationship with Divinity as well as the belief that healing and enlightenment are available to all people. Speaking from the cornerstone teachings that have inspired his ministry, Roth journals his reflections on his personal realizations in The Sacred Light of Healing. He reflects on the Holy Spirit, the original teachings of Jesus, and the inner way of the ancient monks known as the Therapeutae. Roth also discusses his late-life journey to India and an awakening to his own work for global peace. As related to and written by Roger Montgomery, this first-person account is Roth's moving true story of how we all can move into a closer relationship of Oneness with God.

There is perhaps no greater constant in religious intuition and experience than the presence of light. In spiritual traditions East and West, light is not only ubiquitous but something that assumes strikingly similar forms in altogether different historical and cultural settings. This study examines light as an aspect of religiously valued experiences and its entailments for mystical theology, philosophy, politics, and religious art. The essays in this volume make an important contribution to religious studies by proposing that it is misleading to conceive of religious experience in terms of an irreconcilable dichotomy between universality and cultural construction. An esteemed group of contributors, representing the study of Asian and Western religious traditions from a range of disciplinary perspectives, suggests that attention to various forms of divine radiance shows that there is indeed a range of principles that, if not universal, are nevertheless very widely occurring and amenable to fruitful comparative inquiry. What results is a work of enormous scope, demonstrating compelling cross-connections that will be of value to scholars of comparative religions, mysticism, and the relationship between art and the sacred. Contributors: * Catherine B. Asher * Raoul Birnbaum * Sarah Iles Johnston * Matthew T. Kapstein * Andrew Louth * Paul E. Muller-Ortega * Elliot R. Wolfson * Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan * Hossein Ziai