Opposite the north rose and beneath the south rose at Chartres are the figures of the Evangelists on the shoulders of four major Prophets. Next__Previous__Return Building on what has gone before - both in the human psyche and in human progress in general - is, in conjunction with 'emergence' what evolution is all about!  But this has to be done in the right Spirit and Chartres can help us here.

The Secret of the Rose The expression "On the Shoulders of Giants" has been used over the centuries by Isaac Newton and, more recently by Stephen Hawking, but it was also used by a former Master of the 'School of Chartres', Bernard (d. c.1124)  The 12C 'Neoplatonists' of Chartres and 13C glaziers clearly 'tuned into' this Spirit, perhaps intuitively, to carry forward and 'update' the vision of Christianity and to integrate and refine it with the wisdom of the ancient world.  The 'expression' illustrates how all scholarship, scientific and otherwise, largely depends on the work of those who have gone before - as indeed do many of the insights and writings of the New Testament - and, it has to be said, do many of those of Christ himself who often quoted the Old Testament prophets.