Baren Theology, Baren Buildings
Steven J. Schloeder's Architecture in Communion
Rod Miller
July 1, 1999
Architecture in Communion:
Implementing the Second Vatican Council
through the Liturgy and Architecture,
by Steven J. Schloeder
(Ignatius Press, 1998)
265 pp., $24.95This book is depressing.
It is not Schloeder's prose that brings one down, mind you, but the overwhelming case it makes that the majority of church buildings constructed over the last one hundred years are awful. Schloeder finds most recent Catholic churches "banal, uninspiring, and frequently even liturgically bizarre." This book seems to open with gloves off against architectural Modernism's tryst with Roman Catholic church architecture. Schloeder juxtaposes two images. Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeitkirche, Vienna, 1965, a brooding and seemingly randomly stacked group of unadorned rectangles, is contrasted with Wells Cathedral, Wells, England, a late twelfth centur lish Gothic symmetry replete with powerful towers, delicate stone detailing, and figural sculptures.After such a stark beginning, however, the remainder of Schloeder's book is a mostly gentle and thoroughly theological exploration of why contemporary Catholic churches look as they do and what one might do about it. His comments certainly might apply to recent Protestant architectural developments as well. Schloeder's basic premise is that in 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, misinterpretation, or outright rejection, of the Church's liturgy. Schloeder traces this quagmire back to confusion (or again, rejection) surrounding Vatican II's statement on the liturgy and how it might be modified for contemporary practice. Quoting Pickstone, ...
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