Building the Modern Church

Building the Modern Church PDF Author: Robert Proctor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317170857
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council, architectural historian Robert Proctor examines the transformations in British Roman Catholic church architecture that took place in the two decades surrounding this crucial event. Inspired by new thinking in theology and changing practices of worship, and by a growing acceptance of modern art and architecture, architects designed radical new forms of church building in a campaign of new buildings for new urban contexts. A focussed study of mid-twentieth century church architecture, Building the Modern Church considers how architects and clergy constructed the image and reality of the Church as an institution through its buildings. The author examines changing conceptions of tradition and modernity, and the development of a modern church architecture that drew from the ideas of the liturgical movement. The role of Catholic clergy as patrons of modern architecture and art and the changing attitudes of the Church and its architects to modernity are examined, explaining how different strands of post-war architecture were adopted in the field of ecclesiastical buildings. The church building’s social role in defining communities through rituals and symbols is also considered, together with the relationships between churches and modernist urban planning in new towns and suburbs. Case studies analysed in detail include significant buildings and architects that have remained little known until now. Based on meticulous historical research in primary sources, theoretically informed, fully referenced, and thoroughly illustrated, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the church architecture, art and theology of this period.

Building the Modern Church

Building the Modern Church PDF Author: Robert Proctor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317170857
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 487

Get Book Here

Book Description
Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council, architectural historian Robert Proctor examines the transformations in British Roman Catholic church architecture that took place in the two decades surrounding this crucial event. Inspired by new thinking in theology and changing practices of worship, and by a growing acceptance of modern art and architecture, architects designed radical new forms of church building in a campaign of new buildings for new urban contexts. A focussed study of mid-twentieth century church architecture, Building the Modern Church considers how architects and clergy constructed the image and reality of the Church as an institution through its buildings. The author examines changing conceptions of tradition and modernity, and the development of a modern church architecture that drew from the ideas of the liturgical movement. The role of Catholic clergy as patrons of modern architecture and art and the changing attitudes of the Church and its architects to modernity are examined, explaining how different strands of post-war architecture were adopted in the field of ecclesiastical buildings. The church building’s social role in defining communities through rituals and symbols is also considered, together with the relationships between churches and modernist urban planning in new towns and suburbs. Case studies analysed in detail include significant buildings and architects that have remained little known until now. Based on meticulous historical research in primary sources, theoretically informed, fully referenced, and thoroughly illustrated, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the church architecture, art and theology of this period.

Architectural Actions on the Religious Heritage after Vatican II

Architectural Actions on the Religious Heritage after Vatican II PDF Author: Esteban Fernández-Cobián
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527561747
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
This book serves to shed some light on several controversial questions about contemporary interventions on religious heritage buildings. In the mid-1960s, a process of renewal of Catholic churches began, which sought to respond to the liturgical modifications implemented during the Vatican II (1962-65). Fifty years later, this process continues to be problematic in buildings with a high heritage or historical value. From an operational point of view, it is stimulating to revisit the most relevant architectures at the international level, those high-impact works that were generated thanks to an open and serene dialogue between principals, architects, users, artists and patrimonial leaders. Thus, it is essential to know the criteria that have supported interventions, whether legal (both ecclesiastical and civil), architectural, artistic, liturgical or pastoral. In this sense, what references could be used at a time like ours? How can we reform what has already been reformed?

Reclaiming Vatican II

Reclaiming Vatican II PDF Author: Fr. Blake Britton
Publisher: Ave Maria Press
ISBN: 1646800303
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Winner of a first-place award for a first time author and second-place in popular presentation of the faith from the Catholic Media Association. During the past five decades, the Second Vatican Council has been alternately celebrated or maligned for its supposed break with tradition and embrace of the modern world. But what if we’ve gotten it all wrong? Have Catholics—both those who embrace the spirit of Vatican II and those who regard it with suspicion—misunderstood what the council was really about? Fr. Blake Britton discovered the truth and beauty of the council while he was in seminary and he has witnessed firsthand the power of its teachings in the life of his own parish. In Reclaiming Vatican II—a partnership between Ave Maria Press and Word on Fire Catholic Ministries—Britton presses beyond the political narrative foisted upon the post-conciliar Church and contends that Vatican II was neither conservative nor liberal, but something much more beautiful and challenging. Britton clears up misconceptions about the council and reveals how—when properly understood and applied—it fosters a richer experience of being in the Church. Britton says Vatican II promotes a radical return to the Church Fathers and the Scriptures, holding both a commitment to tradition and the need for constant renewal in life-giving balance, recenters the Church on sacred liturgy and encourages both active participation and genuine encounter with transcendence, and charts a clear path for the Church’s renewal and empowers it for evangelism and transformative engagement with the world. Britton invites all Catholics to step beyond the polarization and embrace Vatican II as one of our greatest resources for being in the Church in a way that is faithful, engaged, and effective if we answer its radical call to worship and renewal.

The Church Building as a Sacred Place

The Church Building as a Sacred Place PDF Author: Duncan Stroik
Publisher: Liturgy Training Publications
ISBN: 1595250379
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
This collection of twenty-three essays by Duncan Stroik shows the development and consistency of his architectural vision. Packed with informative essays and over 170 photographs, this collection clearly articulates the Church’s architectural tradition.

Vatican Council II

Vatican Council II PDF Author: Elizabeth Harrington
Publisher: ATF Press
ISBN: 1922239348
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Sacrosanctum Concilium opened the door to all Christians to understand the contemporary challenge to their life and health, and it started with the reform of the liturgy. In the words of Paul VI the liturgy is the 'first source of life communicated to us, the first school of our spiritual life, the first gift we can give to Christian people by our believing and praying, and the first invitation to the world.' That is surely true for all of us.

Mass Exodus

Mass Exodus PDF Author: Stephen Bullivant
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198837941
Category : Ex-church members
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
In 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council with the prophecy that 'a new day is dawning on the Church, bathing her in radiant splendour'. Desiring 'to impart an ever increasing vigour to the Christian life of the faithful', the Council Fathers devoted particular attention to the laity, and set in motion a series of sweeping reforms. The most significant of these centred on refashioning the Church's liturgy--'the source and summit of the Christian life'--in order to make 'it pastorally efficacious to the fullest degree'. Over fifty years on, however, the statistics speak for themselves. In America, only 15% of cradle Catholics say that they attend Mass on a weekly basis; meanwhile, 35% no longer even tick the 'Catholic box' on surveys. In Britain, the signs are direr still. Of those raised Catholic, just 13% still attend Mass weekly, and 37% say they have 'no religion'. But is this all the fault of Vatican II, and its runaway reforms? Or are wider social, cultural, and moral forces primarily to blame? Catholicism is not the only Christian group to have suffered serious declines since the 1960s. If anything Catholics exhibit higher church attendance, and better retention, than most Protestant churches do. If Vatican II is not the cause of Catholicism's crisis, might it instead be the secret to its comparative success? Mass Exodus is the first serious historical and sociological study of Catholic lapsation and disaffiliation. Drawing on a wide range of theological, historical, and sociological sources, Stephen Bullivant offers a comparative study of secularization across two famously contrasting religious cultures: Britain and the USA.

Ugly as Sin

Ugly as Sin PDF Author: M. Rose
Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
ISBN: 1933184442
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
How Catholic churches are being sapped of their spiritual vitality and what you can do about it The problem with new-style churches isn't just that they're ugly they actually distort the Faith and lead Catholics away from Catholicism. So argues Michel S. Rose in these eye-opening pages, which banish forever the notion that lovers of traditional-style churches are motivated simply by taste or nostalgia. In terms that non-architects can understand (and modern architects can't dismiss!), Rose shows that far more is at stake: modern churches actually violate the three natural laws of church architecture and lead Catholics to worship, quite simply, a false god.

Roman Pilgrimage

Roman Pilgrimage PDF Author: George Weigel
Publisher: Constellation
ISBN: 0465027695
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
The annual Lenten pilgrimage to dozens of Rome’s most striking churches is a sacred tradition dating back almost two millennia, to the earliest days of Christianity. Along this historic spiritual pathway, today’s pilgrims confront the mysteries of the Christian faith through a program of biblical and early Christian readings amplified by some of the greatest art and architecture of western civilization. In Roman Pilgrimage, bestselling theologian and papal biographer George Weigel, art historian Elizabeth Lev, and photographer Stephen Weigel lead readers through this unique religious and aesthetic journey with magnificent photographs and revealing commentaries on the pilgrimage’s liturgies, art, and architecture. Through reflections on each day’s readings about faith and doubt, heroism and weakness, self-examination and conversion, sin and grace, Rome’s familiar sites take on a new resonance. And along that same historical path, typically unexplored treasures—artifacts of ancient history and hidden artistic wonders—appear in their original luster, revealing new dimensions of one of the world’s most intriguing and multi-layered cities. A compelling guide to the Eternal City, the Lenten Season, and the itinerary of conversion that is Christian life throughout the year, Roman Pilgrimage reminds readers that the imitation of Christ through faith, hope, and love is the template of all true discipleship, as the exquisite beauty of the Roman station churches invites reflection on the deepest truths of Christianity.

Building from Belief

Building from Belief PDF Author: Michael E. DeSanctis
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 9780814627556
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
Imagine what Sundays in a parish could be if worshiping communities are assured that the liturgy in their spaces might be a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy. Or what town-hall meetings could also be in a place where parish committees are inspired to know that they can be the instruments of truth and beauty. The essays in Building from Belief focus on Catholic church architecture and invite those who are involved in the creation of worship space to be the world's memory of what beauty looks like, and what sanctity feels like." In Building from Belief, Michal DeSanctis treats a variety of topics that concern the creation and use of liturgical space. He brings the historical development of both the Church and its architecture into clear view and focuses on the need for catechesis and conversion. DeSanctis calls for a change of heart on the part of the worshiping community, the building committee, professionals involved in the design process, and of the Church. By keeping the theological concepts of grace and sacramentality in mind, he offers rich insights to these fundamental Christian realities and provides hope and excitement about using the gifts of beauty, grace, and holiness. The essays in Building from Belief are an invitation to build the promised kingdom, allowing the grace of God into our hearts and in our spaces. DeSanctis encourages those who embark on the journey of building to ask the same question that the Fathers of Vatican II asked: how to be Church in a modern world. He shows that the worship that rises from our communities is indeed a true expression of that belief. Chapters under Part I are *Beauty, Holiness and Liturgical Space, - *Catholic Sacramentality and the Reform of Sacred Architecture, - *The Pastoral Dimension of Church Renovation, - *Let's Stop Renovating Church Buildings (And Start Renovating the Church), - and *Coming to Terms with Modern Design. - Chapters under Part II are *Worshiping in 'No place' Casual Observations on Liturgy in the Second Machine Age, - *Images By Which We Live and Build, - and *The Quest for 'Noble Simplicity.'- Includes eight pages of full-color photographs with black-and-white photographs and illustrations throughout. Imagine what Sundays in a parish could be if worshiping communities are assured that the liturgy in their spaces might be a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy. Or what town-hall meetings could also be in a place where parish committees are inspired to know that they can be the instruments of truth and beauty. The essays in Building from Belief focus on Catholic church architecture and invite those who are involved in the creation of worship space to be *the world's memory of what beauty looks like, and what sanctity feels like. - In Building from Belief, Michal DeSanctis treats a variety of topics that concern the creation and use of liturgical space. He brings the historical development of both the Church and its architecture into clear view and focuses on the need for catechesis and conversion. DeSanctis calls for a change of heart on the part of the worshiping community, the building committee, professionals involved in the design process, and of the Church. By keeping the theological concepts of grace and sacramentality in mind, he offers rich insights to these fundamental Christian realities and provides hope and excitement about using the gifts of beauty, grace, and holiness. The essays in Building from Belief are an invitation to build the promised kingdom, allowing the grace of God into our hearts and in our spaces. DeSanctis encourages those who embark on the journey of building to ask the same question that the Fathers of Vatican II asked: how to be Church in a modern world. He shows that the worship that rises from our communities is indeed a true expression of that belief.

Our Dear-Bought Liberty

Our Dear-Bought Liberty PDF Author: Michael D. Breidenbach
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067424723X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
How early American Catholics justified secularism and overcame suspicions of disloyalty, transforming ideas of religious liberty in the process. In colonial America, Catholics were presumed dangerous until proven loyal. Yet Catholics went on to sign the Declaration of Independence and helped to finalize the First Amendment to the Constitution. What explains this remarkable transformation? Michael Breidenbach shows how Catholic leaders emphasized their churchÕs own traditionsÑrather than Enlightenment liberalismÑto secure the religious liberty that enabled their incorporation in American life. Catholics responded to charges of disloyalty by denying papal infallibility and the popeÕs authority to intervene in civil affairs. Rome staunchly rejected such dissent, but reform-minded Catholics justified their stance by looking to conciliarism, an intellectual tradition rooted in medieval Catholic thought yet compatible with a republican view of temporal independence and church-state separation. Drawing on new archival material, Breidenbach finds that early American Catholic leaders, including Maryland founder Cecil Calvert and members of the prominent Carroll family, relied on the conciliarist tradition to help institute religious toleration, including the Maryland Toleration Act of 1649. The critical role of Catholics in establishing American churchÐstate separation enjoins us to revise not only our sense of who the American founders were, but also our understanding of the sources of secularism. ChurchÐstate separation in America, generally understood as the product of a Protestant-driven Enlightenment, was in key respects derived from Catholic thinking. Our Dear-Bought Liberty therefore offers a dramatic departure from received wisdom, suggesting that religious liberty in America was not bestowed by liberal consensus but partly defined through the ingenuity of a persecuted minority.