The Breathing Cathedral

Seeing in recently advanced cosmological theory the renewed possibility that our universe has a definable shape, Heyneman proposes--with persuasive elegance--that humanity may once again experience its world as home. Citing medieval cosmologies, such as that of Thomas Aquinas, who had his own ``theory of everything,'' and referring frequently to the philosophical foundation and geography of Dante's Divine Comedy , journalist and poet Heyneman attributes the richness of Renaissance culture to a claim that its leading thinkers and artists felt ``at home'' in the world as they understood it. ``Psyche and cosmological image mirror each other,'' she asserts, and connects the Big Bang and the theories of Einstein and Stephen Hawking to shapes and devices (``3-spheres,'' gyres, Hamlet's Mill, and an ever-turning spindle) that connect modern humanity with modern concepts of the universe. Personalized, poetic, intricate and closely tied to her admiration of the teaching of Gurdjieff, Heyneman rewards a close reading. Illustrations not seen by PW. (June)