IN a remote valley in Maramures, Rumania, on a rise outside the village, stands a wooden church: a black building measuring 8 x 10 meters, which—like other old churches in the area—can be seen from a distance because of its towering spire.

One Sunday during a trip over summer in 1991, I joined the village faithful going to church. They invited me in. In that narrow space that was about 400 years old, the simple but powerful religious