Church History (as retold by me)

It has also occurred to me that the different styles of churches and a little (tiny, absolutely miniscule) bit of church history might be new for some people (i.e., me, a lot. We need church history in Sunday school. I heard the parable of the woman and the lost coin sixty times, but I had no idea who Constantine was or why he was important to Christianity). So here's a couple of things you should know.

I. House Churches
Before Christianity was legal, Christians would worship in synagogues (since most of the early Christians were Jews) and meet in houses. Thus, for the first oh, say, three centuries of Christianity, you didn't have church buildings. People would meet, share a meal, maybe listen to a letter or word of encouragement, and fellowship, none of which required a church building. Most of these aren't around- they've either fallen down, or early churches were built on top of them.

II. Constantine! and Basilicas
Constantine (the Roman Emperor, not Keanu Reeves) converted to Christianity purportedly after the Battle of Milivian Bridge in 312. The guy he was fighting, who I think also wanted to be emperor, Maxentius, was drowned in the river Tiber during the course of the battle, which shows what cheering for the Christian God can do for you. Christianity was made legal and a favored religion and church building started happening like crazy. The first churches were modeled after Roman basilicas, which were meeting places. They had a big open areas (nave) and side aisles, separated by columns from the nave. The east end with the apse was where a statue of the emperor and the magistrates sat to hold court, but this was replaces with the altar and the place where the bishops sat in the early church.You see the basilica structure in other forms as well.

III. Latin and Roman crosses
Life progressed and things started to be added to churches as the liturgy required. The cross-bar of the church made a division of the space and enabled processions to happen more easily. Eventually, a split happened between the eastern and western sections of the church. There's the Great Schism of 1054, when the church really split into what would become the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, but even before that, church architecture was reflecting the differences with western churches (mostly) following the Latin cross (short cross bar, long nave) and eastern churches having a Greek cross (with equal arms). From these two branches we get the terms Romanesque and Byzantine (after the Byzantium Empire, ruled from Constantinople). The Romanesque church was spread to western Europe by St. Benedict (who is the patron saint of Europe and students, according to wikipedia) when he went a-monasterying, spreading monastic cheer to all of Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries. This style was spread to Britain with the Norman Conquest which started in 1066 (Battle of Hastings, anyone?). Byzantium architecture is preserved in the Hagia Sophia (sigh) which has influenced other churches throughout the world.

V. Gothic
Gothic churches got going in the 12th century when construction methods had gotten far enough along that they didn't need big heavy columns and walls to support the high ceilings they wanted. In a Gothic church, you'll see larger windows, lighter vaulting and most noticeably, pointed arches. There's also the fancy things like flying buttresses and stained glass windows. I kinda really love Gothic churches. But it could just be that I fell in love with Notre Dame de Paris and decided that I'd have to make that my type.

Preeety. The facade of St. Vitus.

VI. Renaissance
There was a rebirth of Roman architecture during the Renaissance. This is when Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome was planned. All the styles go through their own rebirths at different times, but since this happened in during the actual Renaissance, it gets its own name.

VII. Baroque
After the Renaissance was done happening, people decided that they could bend the rules. The word baroque actually comes from "imperfect pearl" which I think is beautiful. But holy goodness, baroque churches are crazy. I don't have a good definition of the style, other than "Let's cram as many shiny and distracting things as possible into the church and hope it looks good."

Wow. Just wow.

VIII. Printing Press and Reformation
Many things changed with the invention of the printing press. People could get bibles in their own languages instead of that pesky latin, which kinda got rid of the need for the Poor Man's Bible- scripture told through statues and stained glass windows. All those statues of Moses and the crucifixion and people going to heaven and hell with angels and demons and animals were ways of telling the Bible before people could read the Bible. Then, this guy named Martin Luther comes around in the 16th century and starts changing up things. There was also a Catholic counter-reformation, so while the Protestants were throwing out stone altars in favor of tables for the Lord's Supper and moving their pulpits to center-scene, the Catholic church was adding statues and stained glass to make mass an emotional, spiritual experience for everyone, including the people not familiar with the liturgy.

IX. Modernist and Post-modernist
Like everything else, church architecture had a modernist phase. Churches we see today are built in these styles or based off of these styles or are built to suit the needs of the congregation. My home church is modernist- it has the chancel surrounded on three sides by the congregation. My church in Chapel Hill is more Romanesque- it's got a nave and a chancel set back into an apse where the choir sits, with the organ up in the balcony and high windows meant to let in light (Bam! I knew I'd get to work in clerestory somehow!). And, also like everything else, there's a post-modernist movement back to the way things used to look.

So there. Now you know everything I know. PS- this was really more for me. I learn more by expounding than I do by reading. Sorry for the boredom. I'll add pictures of others as I get them.

The Church Architecture Glossay (as defined by me)

You're going to think I'm going crazy with blogging, but I'm really just behind on starting all of this up. Some extra things are required. It has occurred to me, after several hours of looking for good definitions of church-y terms that I'd read but wasn't sure I ever understood, that there's no way anyone's going to understand anything I'm going to say without their own foray into the wonders of Google and Wikipedia. To alleviate this strain from your life, I've compiled a list of terms that I'll probably use, with definitions. Feel free to Google any that seem unclear.

First, before I get to that, most churches are laid out in a cruciform shape- that is, they look like a cross. Western and Romanesque churches have Latin crosses, like what you traditionally think of when you think of a cross, whereas eastern and Byzantine churches have a Greek cross, with even arms. Most are oriented east-west, with the altar at the east end and the door at the west, though that doesn't have to be the case. OK, so, here goes.

Nave- the main body of the church, where the congregation sits. It stops at the transept, before the chancel. It normally includes the pulpit and the lectern.

The nave at St. Vitus Cathedral, my example church of the day

Transept- the cross-bar of the church, where the north-south arm meets the east-west arm. It's normally an open floor space, but you'll have a tower above it, or a dome, seen from the outside. The north-south arm can have side chapels or can be a means of entrance for processions, I think.

Dome above the transept in St. Nicholas Church in Lesser Town, Prague

Choir- (sometimes also called quire so you don't confuse it with the people who sing) the area in between the transept and the chancel. It normally has the choir stalls in it, though congregation and clergy can sit there in some churches. It can have the organ, or the organ can be at the back. It can hold the choir or the choir can be up in the balcony. It just depends on the church, and some churches don't have choirs. Quires. They mostly have choirs.
Chancel- the part of the church where the altar is. It's normally raised and can also be called the sanctuary, though we've used the term sanctuary to refer to the entire inside of the church. It used to be, any criminal who could get to the chancel could call sanctuary, which makes me imagine a mad dash through the church and an epic slide to the chancel, which is unfortunately normally raised and separated from the rest of the church by a rail or a screen.

And tourists.

Lectern- a podium you read the Bible from.
Pulpit- the place you preach from. It's central and in the chancel area in protestant churches, but is normally off to the side in the nave in most of the churches I'll be looking at.

So. Fancy. Normally has eagles on it for St. John.

Altar- an altar? One of those things in the middle of chancels that you put crucifixes on, and candles and stuff? They're normally stone and permanent in Catholic churches, but moveable and wooden, more representative of the Lord's Supper, in Protestant churches. Thanks, Martin Luther!

Candles. Required.

Apse- a semi-circular recess covered by a semi-dome. Also known as that awkward curved space behind the chancel and altar where the choir sits in Methodist (and apparently Anglican) churches, but originally was where the Roman emperor sat in basilicas, changed to where God would be in early churches.

Apses. Very poisonous. You go first. (OK, in real life, this is a smaller apse in the staircase of St. Nicholas)

Clerestory- (this is just here because I think it's fun)- the upper level of the nave or just high windows, meant to let in light.
Retro-choir- in big cathedrals and churches, it's the space behind the main altar where there can be another, smaller altar back to back with the main altar. Chapels can also radiate out of this curved portion of the church.

I was so proud when I recognized this architectural feature that I think I actually said Bam! aloud.

Ambulatory- the procession way around the cathedral, where you can amble. It goes back 'round by the retro-choir.
Arcade- a series of arches. Win.

OK, I think that's all I've got right now. Expect this post to be edited as I find more terms that are weird and need defining, or pictures that better show what I'm talking about.