scholarly journals The cleansing of the temple in early medieval Northumbria

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 201-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conor O'Brien

AbstractWhile the attitudes of Stephen of Ripon and Bede toward church-buildings have previously been contrasted, this paper argues that both shared a vision of the church as a holy place, analogous to the Jewish temple and to be kept pure from the mundane world. Their similarity of approach suggests that this concept of the church-building was widespread amongst the Northumbrian monastic elite and may partially reflect the attitudes of the laity also. The idea of the church as the place of eucharistic sacrifice probably lay at the heart of this theology of sacred place. Irish ideas about monastic holiness, traditional liturgical language and the native fascination with building in stone combined with an interest in ritual purity to give power to this use of the temple-image which went on to influence later Carolingian attitudes to churches.

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Whyte

AbstractIn this polemical paper, produced for the Churches, Communities, and Society conference at the Lincoln Theological Institute, University of Manchester, I argue that the Church of England has failed to develop a coherent or convincing theology of architecture. Such a failure raises practical problems for an institution responsible for the care of 16,000 buildings, a quarter of which are of national or international importance. But it has also, I contend, produced an impoverished understanding of architecture’s role as an instrument of mission and a tool for spiritual development. Following a historical survey of attitudes towards church buildings, this paper explores and criticizes the Church of England’s current engagement with its architecture. It raises questions about what has been done and what has been said about churches. It argues that the Church of England lacks a theology of church building and church closing, and calls for work to develop just such a thing.


Author(s):  
Niamh NicGhabhann

During the nineteenth century, infrastructures of devotion and religious worship in Ireland changed dramatically. By 1900, the landscape was transformed by the presence of highly decorated, prominent church buildings. The many building projects of the Roman Catholic church were highly dependent on donations and fundraising. This essay explores the extent to which historical narratives, images, and ideas were used in order to motivate donations, and to develop a sense of community engagement with these new buildings as both symbols of past persecution overcome, and future spiritual glory. It explores sermons and speeches associated with new church building projects as sites for the performance of historiographical authority, and traces the emergence of key narratives of identity and memory, which were powerfully expressed through the spaces and architectural forms of the church buildings.


Aethiopica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 7-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Fritsch ◽  
Michael Gervers

FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHS BELONGING TO THE ARTICLE SEE SUPPLEMENTARY FILES > There are three parts to the interior space of ancient Ethiopian churches: a sanctuary (Mäqdäs) which is expanded into the “Holy Place” (Qǝddǝst) and the place of the assembly (Qǝne maḥlet). Four rooms stand at the corners of a cross-in-square interior: two service rooms on either side of a narthex-like entrance-room, westwards and, more important for the present discussion, two eastern service rooms which flank the sanctuary. These are called the pastophoria. After early input from Syria-Palestine, the Ethiopian basilicas took on an Aksumite character. Their development continued in a loose relationship with changes on the Egyptian scene, notably with a double phenomenon: the evolution of the rite and place of preparation of the bread and wine for Mass (the prothesis), and the demand for more altars at a time when churches could not be multiplied in Egypt. A study of architectural changes in the churches, alongside a comparison of liturgical practices and clues found in iconography and Coptic and Syriac literature, can bear witness to how the liturgy of the Ethiopian Church developed. Such investigation is all the more important because the absence of written documentation until the 13th century has left the church buildings as almost the only evidence available for study. The present study concentrates on the evolution and eventual disappearance of the pastophoria. The nature and location of the altars provides further evidence for dating. It should be noted that Ethiopia does not entirely abide by the Coptic models, essentially because what provoked change in Egypt did not exist in Ethiopia. Many questions still remain to be answered, including: When and where did the large monolithic altar of the permanent Coptic altar type first appear? Why are the West-Syriac and Ethiopian Churches today the only ones to celebrate Mass in a synchronized manner? We hope to address these and other questions at a later date.


Author(s):  
Mark Hill QC

This chapter examines the nature of the parish churches of the Church of England, the respective roles of priest and people, and the rights and duties of the parochial church council (PCC), churchwardens and others. It first provides an overview of the parish structure before discussing the parish electoral roll and the annual parochial church meeting. It then considers the Parochial Church Councils, parochial property, the liability of the rector for repairs to the chancel, quinquennial inspection, and diocesan quota. It also describes pastoral schemes and orders, pastoral church building schemes, sharing of church buildings, ecumenical relations between the Church of England and other Churches, and churchwardens. Finally, it looks at other lay officers of the parish as well as non-parochial churches and chapels.


Author(s):  
Mark Hill QC

This chapter examines the faculty jurisdiction of the Church of England. A faculty refers to a permissive right to alter a church building, its contents, or its immediate surroundings. Undertaking such works in the absence of a faculty is unlawful. The chapter first considers matters that do not require a faculty before discussing the ecclesiastical exemption for particular church buildings or particular categories of building. It then looks at the roles of the Diocesan Advisory Committee, national amenity societies, and the Church Buildings Council in faculty jurisdiction. It also explains issues relating to the grant of a faculty, including objections, unopposed petitions, opposed proceedings, hearings, appeals, and legal costs. The chapter concludes with an overview of particular cases covered by the faculty jurisdiction such as those involving altars, churchyards, demolition, disposal of church treasures, graves, libraries, and pews.


Author(s):  
Laura Varnam

This chapter examines the debate over the relationship between the church building and its community in orthodox and Lollard texts. The chapter begins with the allegorical reading of church architecture in William of Durandus’s Rationale divinorum officiorum and the Middle English What the Church Betokeneth, in which every member of the community has a designated place in the church. The chapter then discusses Lollard attempts to divorce the building from the people by critiquing costly material churches and their decorations in The Lanterne of Liȝt, Lollard sermons, and Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede. The chapter concludes by examining Dives and Pauper in the context of fifteenth-century investment in the church, both financial and spiritual, and argues that in practice church buildings were at the devotional heart of their communities.


1957 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 39-66
Author(s):  
G. U. S. Corbett ◽  
J. M. Reynolds

The main object of the expedition to Umm-el-Jemal, which was financed by the Walker Trust and sponsored by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, in the summer of 1956, was to re-examine the evidence for the history of a church building which had been discovered and summarily surveyed by Professor H. C. Butler and the Princeton University Archaeological Expedition to Syria in the years 1904–1905. This was the church which the Princeton expedition named after a certain Julianos and dated to the year A.D. 344 on the basis of an inscription which they found lying in the ruins and which they associated (mistakenly, as it now seems) with the foundation of the church.Of the hundreds of church buildings which must have been constructed during the first half of the fourth century, very few are known to us, and a church with a recognisable plan and so early a date is a matter of considerable consequence in the study of the development of church architecture. It therefore seemed well worth while to make a special visit to the site of Julianos' church to verify the facts published by the Princeton Expedition; especially as their survey was a rather summary one and seemed, when the writer visited the site in 1953, to be mistaken in more than one important respect.


2015 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasileios Marinis

AbstractThis paper offers a close reading of the passages in the Historia Ekklesiastike kai Mystike Theoria, a liturgical commentary attributed to Germanos I, patriarch of Constantinople (d. 730), that pertain to the church building. The Historia’s interpretation is highly symbolic, steeped in scripture and dependent on earlier and contemporary theological thought. On occasion, the text sheds light on actual architectural developments, as in the case of the skeuophylakion. On the whole, however, the discussion of architecture is rather vague. I argue that the Historia is part of a long exegetical tradition on the liturgy that disregards the functional aspects of church buildings, a disconnect enabled by the adaptability of Byzantine liturgical rites.


Author(s):  
Ralph Meier

The article has its starting point in church asylum as a phenomenon in Norway in the 1990s. It focuses on police practice related to church asylum and the rationale for this practice by state authorities in Norway. It also looks at the theological argumentation for church asylum in official church statements at that time in Norway. Both state authorities and the Church of Norway agree that church buildings do not have a special legal status and that church asylum is not a legal right. But the state authorities respect church asylum because of the understanding of churches as sacred places and protected areas. To better understand this view, the article also looks at the history of church buildings as sacred places. From a theological point of view, church asylum has its foundation historically both in the church building as a sacred room (loci reverentia) and in the Christian duty of helping people in need (intercessio). But the article also points out that the theological argumentation of church asylum based on the understanding of churches as sacred and protected places is no longer used, neither in Catholic nor in Protestant theology. The article concludes that the understanding of churches as sacred and protected places has its foundation in a long tradition that still exists in the population. This is also regarded as the reason why state authorities in Norway do not enter church buildings with police force.


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