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Ugly As Sin: Why They Changed Our Churches from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces-And How We Can Change Them Back Again
The problem with new-style churches isn't just that they're ugly — they actually distort the Faith and lead Catholics away from Catholicism. So argues Michel S. Rose in these eye-opening pages, which banish forever the notion that lovers of traditional-style churches are motivated simply by taste or nostalgia. In terms that non-architects can understand (and modern architects can't dismiss!), Rose shows that far more is at modern churches actually violate the three natural laws of church architecture and lead Catholics to worship, quite simply, a false god. Not content to limit himself to theory, Rose takes you on a revealing tour through a traditional church and a modern church. He shows conclusively how the traditional church communicates the Faith, while the modern one simply doesn't. In the process, he'll give you a renewed love and gratitude for the gift of faith that is your traditional church — plus a keener sense of just what's wrong with modern churches that look like anything but churches. Rose provides you with solid arguments (as easy to explain as they are hard to refute!) and practical tools that you can use to reverse the dangerous trend toward desacralized churches — and to make our churches once again into magnificent Houses of God!
239 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 8, 2012
This book discusses the changes in architecture for churches, primarily US Roman Catholic churches. Rose dispels the myths that the changes were demanded because of Vatican II and the document "Environment and Art in Catholic Worship." Instead, Rose contends that Modernism and the swing to the secular in the Twentieth Century were responsible. The book explains traditional church architecture and its effects on the people. It also offers many examples of churches that were brutalized by people who did not know or understand Vatican II or EACW. Finally, the books suggests way for parishes to reclaim their churches in the first step toward reclaiming the faith for their members.
May 8, 2015
Excellent like every other Michael Rose book. Also sadly accurate and feels Quiotic at times.
January 13, 2010
i wish everybody reads this book. and if that cant be done, then let's start with all architects.
March 7, 2015
Wonderful
A must read for every Christian interested in passing on the faith to future generations. How architecture impacts devotion and orthodoxy.
A must read for every Christian interested in passing on the faith to future generations. How architecture impacts devotion and orthodoxy.
March 8, 2019
Michael Rose's Ugly as Sin is a funny and heartbreaking cri-de-coeur against the banalities, hollow aesthetics, muddied theology, and just plain ugliness of Catholic churches built in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Rose begins by identifying three laws of sacred architecture: verticality, permanence, and iconography. These also happen to be three attributes that are absent from churches built in the "ugly era" (post-WWII - 1990s). He then leads a pilgrim through two journeys. The first is into the house of the Lord. Rose uses this chapter to lovely detail the spiritual significance and theological depth of traditional Catholic architecture and art. The second journey finds our pilgrim meandering confusedly through a "worship space." Rose is quite entertaining here as he uses every opportunity of meaninglessness, starkness, or vagueness (and there are many of these) to skewer modern church design.
Probably the most eye-opening chapter is "Why modern architects secularized our churches" which reveals that even more than bad taste (which abounded in the 1970s), bad theology is the culprit for ugly churches. Amazingly enough, many Catholic dioceses adopted the philosophies of a Lutheran architect, E.A. Sövik, a man whose theology of worship bears little to no resemblance to traditional Catholicism (or even traditional Lutheranism, to tell truth). I flinched to read how slavishly a 1978 guide called Environment and Art in Catholic Worship followed Slövik's theories on designing spaces for humans to encounter the living God. Eschewing designs that lifted the human psyche to heavenly realms, Slövik and his adherents sought to design "a place for people to gather and share their lives with one another," placing the ethos of the Quaker meeting house onto the transcendent purpose of a cathedral. When you see the photos of sanctuaries and naves destroyed and refashioned into amorphous multi-purpose spaces, you will want to weep.
The story, thankfully, does not end there. Many parishes are taking steps to either undo the defacement of classically Catholic buildings and restore the elevated style of former days or tackling their more modern buildings with retrofits that coax sanctity into the stronghold of banality. I think my favorite thing in the whole book was a letter Fr. Richard Simon of St. Thomas of Canterbury Church in Chicago wrote to his parishioners to tell them why he was moving the tabernacle back to the center of the sanctuary behind the altar:
"The dethronement of the Blessed Sacrament has resulted in the enthronement of the clergy, and I for one am sick of it. The Mass has become priest-centered. The celebrant is everything. I am a sinner saved by grace as you are and not the center of the Eucharist. Let me resume my rightful place before the Lord rather than instead of the Lord." I love that passion!
Encouraging, too, are the restoration photos. Hopefully the Church can put this sad blip in her 2000 year history behind her.
My own parish celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016, so the building dates to the 1960s and reflects in its structure the aesthetic of the time. I have seen photos of what the church originally looked like, and I am grateful that previous pastors, our pastor, and the pastoral council have done so much to sanctify this space since then into a more recognizably Catholic appearance. There is still much to be done.
Rose begins by identifying three laws of sacred architecture: verticality, permanence, and iconography. These also happen to be three attributes that are absent from churches built in the "ugly era" (post-WWII - 1990s). He then leads a pilgrim through two journeys. The first is into the house of the Lord. Rose uses this chapter to lovely detail the spiritual significance and theological depth of traditional Catholic architecture and art. The second journey finds our pilgrim meandering confusedly through a "worship space." Rose is quite entertaining here as he uses every opportunity of meaninglessness, starkness, or vagueness (and there are many of these) to skewer modern church design.
Probably the most eye-opening chapter is "Why modern architects secularized our churches" which reveals that even more than bad taste (which abounded in the 1970s), bad theology is the culprit for ugly churches. Amazingly enough, many Catholic dioceses adopted the philosophies of a Lutheran architect, E.A. Sövik, a man whose theology of worship bears little to no resemblance to traditional Catholicism (or even traditional Lutheranism, to tell truth). I flinched to read how slavishly a 1978 guide called Environment and Art in Catholic Worship followed Slövik's theories on designing spaces for humans to encounter the living God. Eschewing designs that lifted the human psyche to heavenly realms, Slövik and his adherents sought to design "a place for people to gather and share their lives with one another," placing the ethos of the Quaker meeting house onto the transcendent purpose of a cathedral. When you see the photos of sanctuaries and naves destroyed and refashioned into amorphous multi-purpose spaces, you will want to weep.
The story, thankfully, does not end there. Many parishes are taking steps to either undo the defacement of classically Catholic buildings and restore the elevated style of former days or tackling their more modern buildings with retrofits that coax sanctity into the stronghold of banality. I think my favorite thing in the whole book was a letter Fr. Richard Simon of St. Thomas of Canterbury Church in Chicago wrote to his parishioners to tell them why he was moving the tabernacle back to the center of the sanctuary behind the altar:
"The dethronement of the Blessed Sacrament has resulted in the enthronement of the clergy, and I for one am sick of it. The Mass has become priest-centered. The celebrant is everything. I am a sinner saved by grace as you are and not the center of the Eucharist. Let me resume my rightful place before the Lord rather than instead of the Lord." I love that passion!
Encouraging, too, are the restoration photos. Hopefully the Church can put this sad blip in her 2000 year history behind her.
My own parish celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016, so the building dates to the 1960s and reflects in its structure the aesthetic of the time. I have seen photos of what the church originally looked like, and I am grateful that previous pastors, our pastor, and the pastoral council have done so much to sanctify this space since then into a more recognizably Catholic appearance. There is still much to be done.
May 12, 2018
This is a fantastic work in "architectural theology." The first chapter explores the three natural laws of church architecture: verticality, permanence, and iconography. Chapter two walks you through one of these churches explaining the meaning of every structure and element. Chapter three walks you through a modern, circa '70s building and it is a cringeworthy experience! Chapters 4-5 talk about what went wrong (the violation of natural laws due to the horizontal, ephemeral, and iconoclastic), and six steps of how to change course.
August 26, 2025
An incredibly excellent read all about what makes church architecture beautiful and the reasons we (especially American Catholics) have fallen so horribly short since the 1950s. So good that I think every Catholic in America would learn something new by reading this book - it deserves a wider audience than it has!
July 6, 2020
This is a straightforward, clear guide to what was, what is, and what ought to be with regard to church architecture. It's centered around three main principles: (1) verticality, (2) permanence, and (3) iconography.
September 14, 2017
A little repetitive, but a good description of what has happened to churches of any orthodoxy. Everything teaches; what are you teaching?
March 6, 2023
Great explanation of church architecture, some chapters didn't appeal to me. But I certainly learned a lot.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews