Churches that Look Like Churches: Traditionalism in Recent Catholic Church Architecture
Subject
Scholarship Sewanee 2011; University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee; Undergraduate research; Catholic church architecture; Modernist church architecture; Traditional church architectureAbstract
This paper examines the traditionalist movement in Catholic church architecture in the U.S. over the past two decades. Taking into account the reasons for discontent with churches built in the Modernist style, this paper considers both the theological claims of traditionalist architects and their architectural expression. It focuses on four representative churches: St. Thomas Aquinas College’s neo-Baroque Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (2009), the neo-Gothic St. Mark’s in Peoria, Illinois, remodeled from 2002-2004 following its 1970s Modernist re-ordering, the neo-English Gothic Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston (2004) and the contemporary traditionalist St. Therese in Collinsville, Oklahoma (2000). Despite their stylistic diversity, these churches all exhibit shared formal characteristics, including an exterior which is visually distinct from the surrounding area, a hierarchical separation between nave and chancel, a prominent location of the altar and the tabernacle, and an integrated iconographic program. This paper argues that these commonalities derive from a shared understanding among proponents of traditionalism of the church building itself as a holy image: an icon.Collections
The following license files are associated with this item:
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Holy Spaces: Path to Multiracial United Methodist Churches in North Alabama
Stryker, Richard (2009-05-03)North Alabama Conference United Methodist Churches are situated in or in some cases, part of thirty-three counties in Northern Alabama. The U.S. 2000 census shows the average racial diversity across these counties to reflect ... -
Mental Illness and Belonging: A Pastor's Inquiry
Tanner, Michael Abbott (2014-01-20)This project consists of qualitative research and analysis that started with the following question: What, from the perspective of people with mental illness makes a church feel welcoming and safe or otherwise? The primary ... -
The Colonial Church and its Legacy and Impact on Colonial Dioceses, Focusing on the Diocese of Southern Virginia: A Family Systems Perspective
Butterworth, Gary W. (2014-01-20)Edwin Friedman writes, “I have been struck by how families, corporations, [churches, synagogues] and other kinds of institutions are constantly trying to cure their own ills through amputations . As a priest ordained in ...