272 - Protestantism and Architecture

Protestantism and Architecture
By Karl Barth*

The principle of a "central focus" (Zentralraumprinzip; lieu centré) seems to be correct because it indicates that the church building is intended to be the site of the preaching of the Word of God and of the prayers of the assembled congregation. I wish that this principle would become mandatory.

What should be placed at the center? In my opinion, a simple wooden table slightly elevated, but distinctly different from an "altar." This would seem to me to be the ideal solution. This table, provided with a movable lectern, should serve at the appropriate time as pulpit, communion table, and baptismal font. (Under whatever form it may be, the separation of the pulpit, the communion table, and the baptismal font only serves to distract attention and create confusion; it is not justified theologically.)

With regard to accessories more or less necessary and which one must mention, the organ and the choir do not have to be within sight of the congregation.

Images and symbols do not have any place in a Protestant church building. (They also only distract attention and create confusion. Not only the congregation gathered for worship, in the strict sense of the word-that is to say, for prayer, preaching, baptism, and Holy Communion, but also and above all the congregation busy in everyday life represents the person and work of Jesus Christ. No image and no symbol can play this role.)

The style, size, and color of doors, walls, and windows, like those of the pews, can and should contribute to the concentration of those who participate in worship, and should direct them toward the message and the devotion which unite them, without necessary recourse to strange ornamentations no matter how "dignified" and "beautiful" they may be.

* Lest it seem to some an unhappy editorial accident that items on church architecture appear in the same issue of THEOLOGY TODAY as items on and from Karl Barth, the above brief statement is included in this issue. Appearing first in Werk (No. 8, 1959), the text here is a translation by Louise R. Ritenour of the French version under the title: "Le probléme de l'architecture des lieux de culte dans le protestantisme," as cited in the book by André Biéler, Liturgie et Architecture: Le Teple des Chrétiens (Librairie Protestante, Paris, 1961, pp. 115 f.). Brief and pointed, Barth's comment seems appropriately placed under Critic's Corner. Some space will be available next time for replies from the symbolists and liturgists, Barthian or otherwise.