A History of the Church through its Buildings takes the reader to meet people who lived through momentous religious changes in the very spaces where the
story of the Church took shape. Buildings are about people: the people who conceived, designed, financed, and used them. Their stories become embedded in
the very fabric itself, and—as the fabric is modified through time in response to changing use, relationships, and beliefs—the architecture becomes the standing history of passing waves of humanity.
This process takes on special significance in churches, where the arrangement of the space places members of the community in relationship with one another
for the performance of the church’s rites and ceremonies. Moreover, architectural forms and building materials can be used to establish relationships with other
buildings in other places and other times. Coordinated systems of signs, symbols, and images proclaim beliefs and doctrine, and—in a wider sense—carry extended narratives of the people and their faith.
Looking at the history of the Church through its buildings allows us to establish a tangible connection to the lives of the people involved in some of the key
moments and movements that shaped that history, and perhaps even a degree of intimacy with them. Standing in the same place where worshippers in the past
preached and taught, or in a space they built as a memorial, touching the stone they placed, or that marks their final resting place, holding a keepsake they
treasured or seeing a relic they venerated—these probably come as close to a shared experience with these people as it is possible to attain. Perhaps for a
fleeting moment at such times, their faces may come more clearly into focus …
