Conclusion 271implicit obedience to all moral commandments. The whole of life was
placed in a convergence of the sacred and the necessity to heed the
demands of the Divine. The initiatory ritual of death and resurrection
is the ascetic reflection of the model of Christ's Passion. More than any
other profession, that of construction illustrated this concept perfectly
through the different kinds of knowledge it required and the conjunc-
tion of science and beauty in its art, and by its purpose, whose grand-
est and most testimonies are God's dwellings on earth: churches and
cathedrals.
The art and learning that finds expression in the smallest detail of
every work is based on intangible foundations as they are touching on
Perfection. This thereby establishes the tradition as well as the path to
which a person must necessarily be initiated in order to take part in the
Work.
On the practical and social plane, Freemasonry innately tends to
speculative and universal teaching. Although its fundamental values
were faithfully handed down, the tradition of masonry was ceaselessly
enriched in its formulation by experience and the constant desire to do
better. As an intinerant art that established contacts between men from
different places and brought different techniques together, the univer-
salist attitude within masonry led to the quest for everything that could
bring together everything from the four corners of the world and make
of them One through all the generations.
When this coming together took place outside of the exclusivity of
dogmas to establish relations between the different religions, it ran the
risk of becoming embroiled in conflict with these dogmas, which led to
the growth of rationalism in the order's philosophy, allowing room and
space for these differences. Does this mean that such antagonism was
inevitable and impossible to resolve? This does not appear to be the
case. Reason and faith are not mutually exclusive. They occupy differ-
ent but complementary planes. The precedence we should assign either
one is fuel for endless debate by philosophers and theologians and is a
delicate question indeed. The answer depends in fact on what should be
attributed to discursive thought and intuitive thought—two poles of
one mind whose parameters are beyond measure and impossible to
determine.