Symbolism in Stained Glass

flickr photo by jimcintosh

I am mapping out a novel titled Stained Glass. I haven't begun to research it yet, but the plot line has emerged, I already know who the main characters are, and am beginning to sense its voice. I'm pumped.

Stained Glass is the story of a young priest whose first parish is the tumultuous gold rush town of Barkerville, BC. A controversy erupts early in his tenure over the installation of a stained glass window behind the alter of the frontier church. Funding for the project has been sadly lacking, but is finally forthcoming from a very unexpected source: the local brothel operator!

One of the things that excites me about this novel is the explicit reference to its symbolism in the title. I have never given a symbolic element so much prominence in a story and am having to study the use of symbolism in literature to avoid botching the job.

Stained glass is a powerful symbol on many levels:

• It is the boundary between man's temples and the outside world, transforming ordinary light into brilliant, iconic imagery;
• Although it is richly moving, and religious in intent, stained glass is the work of a master craftsman, commissioned by fallible humans, who may have political as well as spiritual motives;
• Stained glass is fragile, and can be easily shattered by anyone willing to throw the first stone.

These symbolic attributes will resonate through the story. In fact, Stained Glass is in part about the rich symbolism of church art.

Stained Glass is also about gold and the greed precious metals arouse in men. So the extraction, refining and exchange of gold will be another symbolic feature of the novel. How can such a pure and valued element be the epicenter of so much lust, degradation and corruption? How can anyone in good faith, allow gold to be part of the Christian liturgy in the form of crosses, chalices and candle sticks, when the methods of digging it out of the earth are playing out before everyone's eyes?