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:
Architecture
in Communion:
Implementing the Second Vatican Council
through the Liturgy and Architecture
by Steven J. Schloeder, Ignatius Press, 1998
Reviewed by Rod Miller
This book is depressing. It is not Schloeder's prose that brings one down, mind you, but the realization one receives after reading this book that the overwhelming majority of Church buildings constructed this century are awful. Author Schloeder arrives at this point on the first page, where he states that he finds most recent Catholic churches "banal, uninspiring, and frequently even liturgically bizarre."
In what one assumes will set the theme for the book, the Introduction features two dramatically juxtaposed images. The first is Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeitkirche, Vienna, 1965, a brooding and seemingly random stacked group of unadorned rectangles. The second is Wells Cathedral, Wells, England, a late twelfth-century example of English Gothic symmetry replete with powerful towers, delicate stone detailing, and figural sculptures. At first glance, it appears Schloeder will come out with gloves off, taking on Modernism and its unfortunate tryst with the Church and its architecture. What happens instead is a mostly gentle and thoroughly theological approach to why contemporary Churches looks as they do and what one might do about it.
His basic premise is that during the recent past the Catholic Church has failed to construct meaningful architectural environments. Part of the blame lies with twentieth-century architectural practice; the majority is due to a misunderstanding, or misinterpretation, or outright rejection, of proper Church Liturgy. Schloeder traces it back to confusion (or again, rejection) of Vatican II's comments on the Liturgy and how it might be modified for contemporary practice. Quoting Pickstone, Schloeder suggests: "The barrenness of the building reflects the barrenness of contemporary theology." Some took Vatican II's attempt to "adapt the Church to the contemporary requirements of its apostolic task" a bit too far, assuming that modification to the liturgy meant a type of free-for-all. Some of these liturgical liberties, such as the blurring between the laity and priesthood, have had architectural consequences. Schloeder argues that while adaptations or modifications may be necessary, the essential basics remain the same.
The same principles may be applied architecturally. Certain changes may be permitted or even necessary, in matters such as general seating, the use of pulpits, reservation in a tabernacle, or the form of the confessionals. But other things, such as the sacrificial aspect of the Mass, the unique place of the ministerial priesthood in the Eucharistic assembly, and the uses of water at baptism and bread and wine at Eucharist, have their foundation in Christ and cannot change essentially.
To build his case, Schloeder starts off with the basics. Chapter Two, one of the book's broadest and best, discusses the Church's relationship with the arts. As with the other chapters, Schloeder's research is broad and meticulous. Drawing examples from the recent as well as distant past, Schloeder suggest some new and some old ideas: Church architecture is built theology; the human arts can illuminate something of the divine; architects and theologians should work together. What he drives home is simply that church architecture is important. It not only is a means of manifesting the Church body and its theological convictions, but it can be a conduit to focus our worship more profoundly.
Schloeder goes on to examine how various aspects of the physical church have functioned in accord with doctrines of the spiritual Church. He cites the ancient example of the separation of temple spaces into the sacred and profane, as demonstrated in ancient Hebraic Tabernacles (and of course, Greek and Roman temples). This separation is critical not only in establishing the notion of progression from the profane world to the sacred House of God, but also in establishing that priestly Eucharistic functions are holy. Another example concerns the balance between the Domus Ecclesiae and the Domus Dei; he holds up St. Timothy's (Mesa, Arizona) modern, modular, in-the-round, balcony seating as evidence of what happens when congregations lean too heavily on "the house of God's people." They become an audience rather than participants.
The book does frustrate sometimes. Schloeder is a practicing architect, and one might assume that his book would offer some firm, concrete advice on just where church architecture should go. He doesn't. He simply concludes that a church needs to look like a church and needs to be both "modern" and "traditional." His conclusions, while well supported by his arguments, but might leave some a bit flat.
Humbly, Schloeder features images of his own work on the very last page. His church design provides the reader a better idea of how his abstract principles might work; a better option might have been to include more of his work in the book and expound on it.
A few of Schloeder's examples are somewhat bewildering, even annoying. Schloeder makes the statement that Modernism as an architectural style is "essentially asymbolical" and wonders if it can ever be appropriate for a church building. However, early in the book, as an example of a non-traditional church that subtly utilized tradition, he examines Corpus Christi, Aachen (Schwarz, 1928). (Schloeder discusses Schwarz' unusual design concepts in his final chapter.) This bare white rectangle has a few black marble steps and an extra four square windows at the front which Schloeder finds notable because they imply the separation of nave and sanctuary. What Schloeder fails to mention is that worshiping in Corpus Christi would be similar to worshiping in a Chinese take-out box. One wishes he would hit harder.
The biggest problem with the book is that Schloeder examines only Catholic churches and the interpretation of Catholic doctrine. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, it may limit his audience to Catholics. That would be a shame. The same principles apply in many ways to Protestant church building.
In fact, all architecture reflects something of its designers' and patrons' values, and all of it teaches or inspires or humbles or demoralizes. Schloeder's method, applied to all building, might have produced a powerful read.
This is a timely book. As contemporary architecture steps away from the ravages of Modernism, an opportunity is emerging for more reasonable approaches to designing the built environment. Schloeder offers some suggestions for how that might be accomplished. His book, while limited, is worth reading. Above all else, it reminds us that we do live in the world and also that we have a responsibility to manifest beauty in all our pursuits.