Theology Today - Vol 41, No. 1 - April 1984 - BOOK REVIEW - American Churches & Tradition Becomes Innovation: Modern Religious Architecture in America

125 - American Churches & Tradition Becomes Innovation: Modern Religious Architecture in America

American Churches
By Roger G. Kennedy
New York, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1982. 296 pp. $50.00.

Tradition Becomes Innovation: Modern Religious Architecture in America
By Bartlett Hayes
New York, Pilgrim Press, 1983. 176 pp. $27.50.

It is "the content," Roger Kennedy contends, "not the container" that makes a building religious, for great architecture is an expression of spirit. Yet, all religious buildings-the places in which to seek God and to associate with others in that search-are erected for humankind (God may not need architecture, but people do). Thus, the containers in which worship takes place are inseparable from how God is worshipped.

In American Churches, Roger Kennedy, who is Director of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, attempts to discover "something intangible" beyond light and form that "creates an environment for contemplation and prayer." It is arguable whether this is, as the jacket proclaims, "the most important book ever published on the American church," but it is certainly an ambitious attempt to

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interweave general reflections on religious life and architecture, along with descriptions of eighty specific churches.

Eschewing a chronological development, Kennedy organizes his material around several broad themes, such as the architects, the historical background, and stylistic forms. There is a great deal of information to be gleaned from this book; the writing is graceful (if at times a bit pretentious), and the architectural analyses are generally excellent. Most of all, the book demonstrates the remarkable variety of religious expression found in our houses of worship, while the obvious examples-the First Church of Old Bennington, Vermont, St Patrick's Cathedral, or Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple-are complemented by representative lesser known ones.

American Churches admittedly is not intended for "professional scholars," but it is difficult to guage exactly at whom this book is aimed, for it is basically a picture book-of the lavish coffee-table variety. However, the absolutely stunning photographs (most in color) upstage the text, so that this volume can be recommended for its illustrations alone. Kennedy does provide biographical sketches of forty major designers, but readers wanting to go beyond this breezy introduction to the topic of church architecture should consult the author's suggestions for further reading.

While not such a bravura performance, Bartlett Hayes' Tradition Becomes Innovation has a more didactic purpose. It was commissioned by the Board for Homeland Missions of the United Church, ostensibly to assist clergy, architects, and parishioners to "understand the learning experience and challenge of building a church." (If architectual form is the manifestation of the spirit of worship, one wonders why the study of ecclesiastical design is not a requirement of theological training.)

Hayes, former curator of the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Andover Academy, argues that outstanding contemporary church design depends upon a knowledge of the past. Unfortunately, his historical survey of European stylistic antecedents is disappointingly superficial, and many of his assertions are unsupported. For example, he implies that Lord Elgin single-handedly created the Greek Revival, and be suggests that "St.-Martins-in-the-Fields [sic], London, may have been an influence on some Colonial churches" (a perusal of Roger Kennedy's book dramatically demonstrates St. Martin's seminal role as a model for eighteenth century American churches). Some comments, like a church "possesses an ineffable character that sets it aside from secular buildings," are just plain silly.

Like American Churches, this is primarily a book of pictures, but what grim images they are. Instead of making a cogent case for contemporary architectural design, Tradition Becomes Innovation is at times an argument for what not to build. There seems to have been little or no aesthetic judgment exercised in the selection of examples, and, because they were chosen to illustrate points for the potential builder,

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the great religious designs of, say, Eero Saarinen or Louis Kahn are treated in the same manner as some very pedestrian churches. In spite of this, a few notable churches do stand out, but the author does not make any attempt to explain why some denominations tend to commission better architects. A perceptive reader might conclude that the Lutherans generally erect the best new churches, but there is no explanation as to why.

Perhaps one reason that there are so many undistinguished new churches is precisely because we have ignored tradition. No one would argue for copying the styles of the past, but the truly noteworthy church designs which appear in these two books share characteristics and verities basic to all good architecture, regardless of function. This raises the question whether a non-ecclesiastical structure like a soaring skyscraper or the Brooklyn Bridge might not also be considered religious or at least spiritual. Anyone wishing to build a church which may become a future landmark might beginby studying the monuments designed by artists like Peter Harrison, Henry Hobson Richardson, Ralph Adams Cram, or Marcel Breuer-great architects who also happened to design churches.

William Morgan
Allen R. Hite Art Institute
Louisville, Kentucky