Institute for Theology, Imagination, & the Arts
Books
Beginner
Credenda/Agenda issue on Architecture
- Douglas Jones – “Thema: A Column on Our Theme”
- Douglas Wilson – “Kuriakos”
- Daniel Lee – “Questions on Architecture”
- Ben Merkle – “Taking Culture Back”
Jeremy Begbie (ed.) – Beholding the Glory: Incarnation Through the Arts
Ned Bustard & Sandra Bowden (eds). – It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God (a good collection of essays by reputable Christian artists, as well as Reformed good guys like William Edgar and Tim Keller)
James F. White – Protestant Worship & Church Architecture (Essential reading–stresses the primacy of thinking through the liturgy of a church before planning a building.)
Intermediate
Jeanne Halgren Kilde – Sacred Power, Sacred Space: An Introduction to Christian Architecture and Worship(useful introduction)
Edward Norman – The House of God: Church Architecture, Style, & History (readable history, with many wonderful illustrations)
Eugene H. Peterson – Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John & the Praying Imagination (A liturgical study of Revelation. Practical and profound.)
Richard Viladesau – Theology and the Arts: Encountering God through Music, Art and Rhetoric (Roman Catholic)
Advanced
Paul Avis – God and the Creative Imagination
Frank Burch Brown – Good Taste, Bad Taste, Christian Taste
Paul Corby Finney (ed.) – Seeing Beyond the Word: Visual Arts and the Calvinist Tradition
Jeanne Halgren Kilde – When the Church Became Theater: The Transformation of Evangelical Architecture and Worship in Nineteenth Century America
Artists
How about ‘Christ and Architecture: Building Presbyterian/Reformed Churches’ by Donald J. Bruggink and Carl H. Droppers, Eerdmans, 1965?
I haven’t read it, but if you’d like to write a brief review, I’ll put it on. I also see that there’s only 1 copy available from Amazon, for only $120.00!!!
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship says of this book: “This historically interesting volume addresses the relationship between theology and architecture. In the first section a preacher and theologian discuss the issues. In the second half an architect presents the practical and technical aspects of achieving theological goals. It contains photos of Reformed churches throughout Europe and the US. Black and white, 708 pages.”
An excerpt from the book, which gives a good flavour of what it’s like, is available for reading here:
http://www.reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=246