had such potency to the medievals because God wasn’t present in a vague spiritual sense, like a butler watching silently over a manor house. He was there, writes Taylor, “as immediate reality, like stones, rivers, and mountains.”2 The specific sense in which He was present was a mystery—and a source of speculation and contention even back then—but that He was truly present was not disputed. The only reason the material world had any meaning at all was because of its relationship to God.
