New Age like Catholic Church Construction

[Atk_Aheeni]

Anyone ever get creeped out when you see church’s bieng built and its like all modern looking as if it was a work of contemporary art? Somehow I prefer going to a Catholic Church where the building looks a lil more old fashioned. Some of these Church’s have good intentions but gee it always looks like a train wreck to me if the church looks like a abstract painting or perhaps just not like a church.

 

[mercygate]

Anyone ever get creeped out when you see church’s bieng built and its like all modern looking as if it was a work of contemporary art? Somehow I prefer going to a Catholic Church where the building looks a lil more old fashioned. Some of these Church’s have good intentions but gee it always looks like a train wreck to me if the church looks like a abstract painting or perhaps just not like a church.

Click on this link and listen to episode #1 of Christ in the City for 2003. This is Fr. George Rutler on church architecture. You’ll find that he agrees with you and articulates the case very well.

 

[lotusblossom]

My parents’ home parish is going through the process right now of designing and building a new and bigger church. My dad joined the design committee for this exact purpose - no “modern” churches for them! And actually the only one who pushed for the modern church was the nun who was there as their “guide.” However, our diocese is quite liberal, so they did have to “put in” a few “modern” pieces which supposedly won’t actually be built. He read some book about new agey looking chuches and it has the word “Sin” in the title, but I forget it.

Anyway, I’m all for the traditional churches. After all, this is our King’s palace, right?

 

[mercygate]

My parents’ home parish is going through the process right now of designing and building a new and bigger church. My dad joined the design committee for this exact purpose - no “modern” churches for them! And actually the only one who pushed for the modern church was the nun who was there as their “guide.” However, our diocese is quite liberal, so they did have to “put in” a few “modern” pieces which supposedly won’t actually be built. He read some book about new agey looking chuches and it has the word “Sin” in the title, but I forget it.

Anyway, I’m all for the traditional churches. After all, this is our King’s palace, right?

That book is *Ugly as Sin *by Michael Rose. No building committee should pound the convening gavel without distributing a copy to every member of the group!

 

[Atk_Aheeni]

That book is *Ugly as Sin *by Michael Rose. No building committee should pound the convening gavel without distributing a copy to every member of the group!

I am going to try to get a copy of that.

 

[BLB_Oregon]

There is nothing that says that European architecture is the only kind that can give glory to God…and this particularly goes for approximating imitations of European architecture. There are not a few churches that make a visitor think, "I’ve seen great Christian architecture in the cathedrals and churches of Europe…and this ain’t it!"

IMHO, though, the sense of the building should fit the what the parishioners feel, even if their taste is atrocious by outward standards. You can’t impose religious sensibility. If the parishioners want some awful sham-Gothic thing or some awful abstract thing, well…whatever. They’re the ones who will be joining there as the Body of Christ. It ought to be something that lifts their hearts, not something that conforms to somebody else’s idea of the sublime.

It also should be something that they arrive at without fighting, though, please! Every time they meet to consider the question, they ought to read the passage from Mark where the disciples were arguing about who was the most important, and tatoo the same on all the plans for review!

 

[Rolltide]

It IS possible to build a glorious and inspiring church in the modern style, just more difficult. Look at Sagrada Familia in Barcelona…

 

[Catholic_Dude]

IMHO, though, the sense of the building should fit the what the parishioners feel, even if their taste is atrocious by outward standards. You can’t impose religious sensibility. If the parishioners want some awful sham-Gothic thing or some awful abstract thing, well…whatever. They’re the ones who will be joining there as the Body of Christ. It ought to be something that lifts their hearts, not something that conforms to somebody else’s idea of the sublime.

Thats just it though, the ones selecting these “designs” are not the average parishoner, its a select few with a progressive mentality. There has been a hard push by liberalism to destroy art and religion by making a new type of art all around us, an art that is utterly atrocious and despicable…the go even futher by publicly praising this “art” in museums and such making the average joe think its ok.

 

[thechrismyster]

the sense of the building should fit the what the parishioners feel, even if their taste is atrocious by outward standards.

 

[Atk_Aheeni]

Thats just it though, the ones selecting these “designs” are not the average parishoner, its a select few with a progressive mentality. There has been a hard push by liberalism to destroy art and religion by making a new type of art all around us, an art that is utterly atrocious and despicable…the go even futher by publicly praising this “art” in museums and such making the average joe think its ok.

Yup

 

[BLB_Oregon]

Thats just it though, the ones selecting these “designs” are not the average parishoner, its a select few with a progressive mentality. There has been a hard push by liberalism to destroy art and religion by making a new type of art all around us, an art that is utterly atrocious and despicable…the go even futher by publicly praising this “art” in museums and such making the average joe think its ok.

I don’t suppose I need to tell you that virtually every style of art was new and hated by some at some point in time.

You could just as easily say that there has been a push by a few to keep repeating the same architectural mistakes over and over and over–that is, bad copies of European cathedrals that, unlike what they imitate, have no feeling for setting, scale, or the materials used.

It isn’t for you to tell someone else that what they like is wrong and what you like is correct, particularly when you are an “average joe” who likes what he likes just because he likes it and not because he has some gift when it comes to taste or because he has ever taken the trouble to find out what makes good art come to be considered good and bad art considered bad. Not that you are that kind of average joe, but you know what I mean. Most people like what they’re used to, and that’s it. I don’t have a problem with that, until they start telling everybody else to like it, too.

But this is how these fights start…people making what they like “correct” and figuring out how to grab the power and override the others. It is kind of sad, but I guess if you add human nature to the very deep feelings that art invokes, it is going to happen.

Anyway, I hope you have a beautiful traditional church to pray in. What is important is that you have a space that invites you to meet God with your soul wide open. Revulsion has a way of ruining that.