In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages

by Michael S. Rose

Architects, says Rose, have always understood that architecture isn’t inconsequential. Sacred architecture, in particular, has an immense influence on how people think and feel — and even on how they pray and believe. In Tiers of Glory explains why, and it does so from the perspective of history and tradition. Rose (author of The Renovation Manipulation and Ugly as Sin) here provides a clear, comprehensive summation of the development of Catholic Church architecture from the Church’s earliest days to modern times. He identifies the canons that have been common to Catholic churches throughout history — from Roman basilicas to Byzantine and Carolingian churches, from pilgrimage shrines to Gothic churches, from Renaissance classicism to Baroque opulence — that is, elements that have been common to churches in every age except our own. Rose details how this organic development has been broken by the banal, uninspiring, and sometimes ugly church buildings of today. But he insists that Catholics need not simply endure these blunders and missteps. With a series of enlightening prescriptions for the future of Catholic church architecture, Rose explains how the Church can restore continuity with the great churches of the past — and why it is crucial to do so. Gloriously illustrated with over 200 full-color photos and renderings, In Tiers of Glory is a much needed and welcome addition to the literature on church architecture.

136 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2004

Reviews

[Daniel]

This is a breezy yet satisfying look at the historical development of churches from tabernacle to temple to basilica to gothic, Romanesque, renaissance, and baroque that add "tiers of meaning" that were built as "vessels of meaning" concerning God, theology, and worship to the 20th century modernist disaster (often encouraged and underwritten by church officials) of the cult of ugliness that creates "church buildings" that are monstrosities that only point to themselves, the architect, or the patron. Rose's final chapter suggests a way forward.

The opening paragraph of the book aptly sums it up: "One basic tenet that architects have accepted for millennia is that the built environment has the capacity to deeply affect the human person--the way he acts, the way he feels, and the way he is. This is possible largely because architecture has the capacity to carry meaning. Architecture isn't inconsequential. The Catholic Church has always understood this well. A church building is a vessel of meaning with the greatest of symbolic responsibilities: it must bear the significance of eternal truths through its material form in order to establish a sacred place destined for divine worship."

[Cris]

A surprisingly in-depth book, despite the seemingly simple design. A good teaching tool for it provides info-asides to highlight the main points of each chapter. It goes through a historical, as well as geographical and culture-centric development of ecclesiastical architecture in simple words. It discusses how the architecture began in the meeting tent, as specifically dictated to Moses, and goes on to discuss how every age added more 'tiers of meaning' to educate and inspire the un-lettered man: angels as instructed to Moses to face the tabernacle, stain-glass to teach and light, the east facing tabernacle to unite the world churches. A good book for a young person. My only issue with the book is the about the writing on the chapter on Breaking with the Past. The author could have done a more thoughtful job of explaining the objections of to Modernism. (I was surprised the Indian Plane-Church didn't make the cut.) The simplified buildings offered no focusing elements to bring forth the centrality of God and not whomever was on the podium. Glass walls behind the tabernacle confused the central identity of God with creator instead as simply God. If in honesty, the author had said Man needs symbols because he is a signifying creature and created to derive comfort from limited visual languages, that would have been a good starting point for analysis. Still, one to keep for the family.