The world's cathedral

Medievalists.net asked me for a statement about the fire at Notre Dame de Paris: "The visceral responses to the conflagration of Notre-Dame of Paris are commensurate with what the cathedral represents: it is a time machine that offers us, via its artistic features and religious rites, one of the few ‘direct’ admission tickets to the premodern past. No fire can ultimately destroy it. It will rise from its ashes because we need it." ARTiCLE