In its earliest usage
Man allowed gold to serve as a vessel that
re-united the world of the spirit with the earthly world.
It was valued as an indication of the presence and interest of the
sun-god in human culture.
In Egypt, Persia and India gold was an essential part of
sacred ceremonies.

While the Persians are said to be the first to mint gold into coins,
it was Alexander the Great who first stamped gold coins with his own likeness.
This was the beginning of the personal use — and abuse — of gold.
For centuries the flow of gold was a driving force in history.
The Roman Empire was managed by means of gold mined in Spain to pay the legions of soldiers.
When the mines in Spain began to give out, the Empire crumbled and fell.

Later, gold mines in the north were developed,
and the Church as well as the lords who participated in the Crusades were the next to prosper through
the movement of gold.
The difficulty of transporting gold and the dangers of loss led to the ingenious system of banking
developed by the Templars,
who were ultimately destroyed by the greed of the French King Philip the Fair.
And gold began to show its curse as well as its blessing.
The lust for gold empowered the Conquistadors to plunder South America; then Australia became a source, and Africa too fell to the drive for the wealth and power of gold.
The settlement of western North America was strongly influenced in the
19th century by the Gold Rush.

But the historical scars on the earth
and rise and fall of civilizations are only a part of the power of gold that continues today.
Gold has seeped into our language — we speak of “a heart of gold” or a
“golden age” of time.
The extraordinary properties of gold as a metal lend themselves to symbolize eternal,
incorruptible, radiant values.
From the Olympics we know that gold is the best!

The underlying “golden thread”
of this conference is tracing the living path of gold from its spiritual origins in light
to its manifestations and role in art, medicine, economics, historical development, and finally pointing to the future the redemption of gold.

How can we help to raise gold back to becoming a moral — and Christ-oriented — substance?

How can we rediscover the gold of goodness?

What is this mysterious transparent gold of the New Jerusalem
at the end of the Apocalypse?