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Did Vatican II Promote the Reform of Church Architecture? By Michael S. Rose |
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'Sacrosanctum Concilium' was the only Vatican II document that addressed the question of art
in our churches. Interestingly, it did not employ the word 'architecture' even once.
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The basilicas of the early Church established the idea of a sacred place where Christians gathered for public worship. The Romanesque inspired the search for symbols that would lead the spirit toward God. In the Middle Ages, intense religious fervor and intellectual vigor led to the Gothic “sermons in stone,” followed by Renaissance architecture, which reflected the new love for erudition, science, and metaphysics. Yet during each of these architectural epochs, church architects and artisans based their designs on the same basic principles to effect the individual “styles,” each of which the Church has admitted into her treasury of sacred architecture.
During the Protestant Reformation, however, architects devised new church forms and arrangements that reflected their idiosyncratic theologies and philosophies. During this period some Catholic...
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