Temples for a modern god
Subtitle: religious architecture in postwar America
By: Jay M. Price
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780199925957
Subjects: Church architecture; History
Description: Temples for a Modern God is one of the first major studies of American religious architecture in the postwar period, and it reveals the diverse and complicated set of issues that emerged just as one of the nation's biggest building booms unfolded. Jay Price tells the story of how a movement consisting of denominational architectural bureaus, freelance consultants, architects, professional and religious organizations, religious building journals, professional conferences, artistic studios, and specialized businesses came to have a profound influence on the nature of sacred space. Debates over architectural style coincided with equally significant changes in worship practice. Meanwhile, suburbanization and the baby boom required a new type of worship facility, one that had to attract members and serve a social role as much as honor the Divine. Price uses religious architecture to explore how Mainline Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, and other traditions moved beyond their ethnic, regional, and cultural enclaves to create a built environment that was simultaneously intertwined with technology and social change, yet rooted in a fluid and shifting sense of tradition. Price argues that these structures, as often mocked as loved, were physical embodiments of a significant, if underappreciated, era in American religious history.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: ch. 1. The search for a better church building; title: ch. 2. The postwar house of worship; title: ch. 3. Postwar religious building: a negotiated; title: ch. 4. Making a modern church still look like a church; title: ch. 5. Let's stop building cathedrals; title: Conclusion: an unappreciated legacy; title: Bibliography.