Wrong target

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

A popular target of critics since the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council has been the design of new churches and the renovation of old ones.

If one just listened to the critics it would be easy to believe that the church had embraced only one architectural style from the Apostles - or at the latest the time of Constantine - up to the mid-1960s.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Church architecture has changed several times to reflect evolving understandings of the Mass, theology and even the structure of society.

For the first three centuries communities met in the homes of members. These house churches were small and intimate. The focus was on the assembly participating in the breaking of the bread.

The first real churches were the basilicas - converted public buildings used for social events. These long rectangular buildings with the altar on one end became necessary in the 4th century after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire.

By the 9th century, the rise of monasticism and a growing feeling that the laity were unworthy to receive the Eucharist led to monastic churches. In them, the assembly was in one end isolated from the altar by the choir stalls for monks and physical barriers of stone or wood that concealed both altar and choir.

Gothic architecture sprang up in the 12th century. It used pointed arches, stained glass and ribbed vaults to convey the idea of Jesus as light of the world and the heavenly city. The goal was to show the harmony of God's kingdom.

The Renaissance, in the 16th century, sparked Baroque architecture. The Baroque sought to show papal authority and structure in the church in response to the Protestant Reformation. The ornate churches, with their statues and bright frescoes, provided a sharp contrast to subdued Protestant churches. For the most part the Baroque style, which mirrored the teachings of the Council of Trent, continued well into the 20th century.

Vatican II and its efforts to recapture the early church's understandings of the Mass has brought us churches that seek to do what the house churches did, but on a larger scale.

It also must be noted that the renovation of old churches - or even their destruction to build new churches - to reflect contemporary theology is not new. That's another tradition almost as old as the church itself.