Fortsätt till huvudinnehåll

The Modern Movement and the denial of transcendence in church architecture


Chapel interior
Originally uploaded by andrewpaulcarr.

It is unfortunate that the traditional Latin liturgy has been taken as a rallying point for ignorance and reaction. An article by Moyra Doorly in the journal of the Latin Mass Society addresses a widespread concern when she remarks upon the failure of recent church architecture to establish a sense of transcendence. But she goes on to attribute this failure to the Modern Movement, which is unjustified. The history of twentieth century architecture does not warrant such a conclusion. (Article by Moyra Doorly in Mass of Ages)

During the closing years of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth, new conceptual tools were becoming available to architects and designers through the proliferation of descriptive systems. These led to advances in understanding of all aspects of the built environment and product design – materials science, civil engineering, project management, acoustics, heating, lighting, ventilation, biometrics and ergonomics, and hygiene.

As these new techniques and insights were assimilated into the design process, it was inevitable that architects would reflect upon how they thought about and practised their profession. A vigorous discourse developed amongst theorists and practitioners in architecture and design. A multiplicity of stances, often contradictory, were taken up. The diverse trends of that period are commonly referred to as “Modernist” but it is a label with no actuality outside of the writers’ intentions.

Like the Amish, one can choose not to live in the present, but this has never been part of the tradition of the Latin rite church, which recognises that the incarnational world is one of change. Far from being responsible for the denial of transcendence, the additional conceptual tools at the disposal of architects from the start of the twentieth century have made it possible to create spaces better suited than any before for the celebration of the traditional Catholic liturgy; consider, for example, the buildings of architects such as Auguste Perret and Antoni Gaudi, the latter anticipating the works of contemporary designers, and who were as much involved in early twentieth-century discourse as the Vienna Secessionists and the Bauhaus school.

Much recent church architecture - and liturgical practice too - is indeed a denial of transcendence, but it spoils a good case to lay the blame on Modernism. Twentieth century architectural theory and practice should not be held responsible. The reasons lie elsewhere.

Kommentarer

Populära inlägg i den här bloggen

The dreadfulness of British governance

I wrote to my MP on two entirely separate issues recently. The first was to do with the replacement for the Inter City 125 train, which at £2.6 million per vehicle, is twice as expensive as it ought to be. The second concerned the benefits of a switch from business rate and Council Tax to a tax based on site values. In both cases, the replies were full of spurious, unsubstantiated assertions and completely flawed arguments. This is typical. You will not get an iota of sense from the government on any area of public policy at all - finance, economics, trade and employment, agriculture, housing, health, transport, energy. All junk. If you write to your MP you will invariably receive answers that are an insult to your intelligence, no matter what subject you are writing about. Of course they cannot understand statistics. They are innumerate. Whitehall is staffed with idiots with a high IQ. Look at their IT projects. And mind your purse, they will have that too.

How much more will the British tolerate?

The British are phlegmatic, tolerant and slow to rouse. Thus there was no great reaction after the terrorist attack in July 2005. The murder of Lee Rigby created a sense of outrage, but nothing more, since it appeared to be an isolated incident. Two serious incidents within a fortnight are another matter. Since the first major terrorist incident in 2001, authority has tried to persuade the public that Islam is a religion of peace, that these were isolated events, or the actions of deranged "lone wolves", having nothing to do with Islam, or to reassure that the chances of being killed in a terrorist attack were infinitesimally small. These assurances are are beginning to wear thin. They no longer convince. If government does not act effectively, people will take the law into their own hands. What, however, would effective action look like? What sort of effective action would not amount to rough justice for a lot of innocent people? Given the difficulties of keeping large n...

Importing people to sustain demand

I got involved in a discussion with a Youtuber called “Philosophy all along”. This was in connection with criticism of Trump’s policy of deporting illegal migrants, which he argued would be bad for the economy as it would reduce demand. This implies that there is a need to import people to sustain demand. There is no obvious reason why a population should not be able to consume everything that the same population produces. If it can not, then something else is going on. It is a basic principle that wages are the least that workers will accept to do a job. Wages are a share of the value added by workers through their wages. The remainder is distributed as economic rent, after government has taken its cut in taxes. Monopoly profit is a temporary surplus that after a delay gets absorbed into economic rent. Land values in Silicon Valley are an example of this; it's like a gold rush. The miners get little out of it. Rent and tax syphon purchasing power away from those who produce the g...