The aim of this study is to interpret the characteristics of early Christian church architecture by theologies in those times. To attain this objective, the important features of theologies, including church history, worship and doctrines, and church architecture in the early Christian times are fir...
The aim of this study is to interpret the characteristics of early Christian church architecture by theologies in those times. To attain this objective, the important features of theologies, including church history, worship and doctrines, and church architecture in the early Christian times are first pursued. And then, the relationship between the two are analysed. Finally, the theological meanings are interpreted from the relationship and lessons applicable for comtemporary church architecture are abstracted. The results of this study are as follows. 1. The early Christian community before Constantine the Great, at first, gathered at one of its member's house as a house church, and later, came to have the Domus Ecclesiae which is a modified house or the early Syrian church copied from the Jewish sinagogue as its own church building. The house church gathered around a table to share its bread waiting for the Second Coming of Christ without any celebration. Therefore, worship and gathering in the house church are assumed to be very familiar and their spatial atmosphere to reflect pure piety and unity as a eschatological community. On the other hand, both the Domus Ecclesiae and the early Syrian churchs reflected the celebrations and the church organizations which were advanced to a certain degree and also included a variety of functions such as baptism, education, and voluntary service. Especially, the early Syrian church emphasized Christian symbolization together with those functions. That is, according to the function of the celebration which consisted of two parts, the center of worship became dual. The Lord's Table was placed on the east side, which symbolized Jesus Christ and his second coming, so that it could become a visual and symbolic focus of the worship space, while the pulpit was placed on the center of the hall making it convenient for a congregation to gather around it listening to and watching the Word together. Worship started from gathering around the bema to listen to the Word, and then proceeded to follow the bishop to the Lord's Table and participate in the Eucharist. This means that the early Syrian worship was community-oriented based upon equality and emphasized participation of a congregation. 2. Church architecture after Constantine the Great created and developed two representative styles: Basilican Style and Byzantine Style. Basilican Style of church architecture adopted Roman Basilican Style in the early 4th century and developed it into one of the major Western Church architecture styles, which became the basis of Romanesque and Gothic Style of the medieval Catholic Church and even had a influence on the modern Catholic and Protestant Church which originated from the Western Church. On the other hand, the Byzantine Style, which started in the 6th century, originated from martyrium and baptistery architecture style which adopted Roman tomb architecture, and then became a prototype for Eastern Church architecture. The following are the characteristics of those two styles which are comparatively studied from the theological point of view. 1) Basilican Style church architecture adopted Roman Basilican Style, which reflected the Roman culture of rationalism and pragmatism and especially abstinent ethics of Stoicism, as its basic model, and with this, combined the longitudinal and hierarchical space concept of the Temple and Christian symbolism of the Lord's Table in the early Syrian church. Consequently, it created horizontal, longitudinal and hierarchical space with the long linear rectangular plane which focused solely on the Lord's Table symbolizing Jesus Christ. On the other hand, Byzantine Style originated from Hellenism and Byzantine culture based upon Hellenistic philosophy, and functionally combined the spatial concept of the early Syrian church emphasizing equality, participation and unity of a congregation in worship which consisted of the Word and the Eucharist, and the centralized spatial concept of the martyrium or the baptistery which had an altar in the center. As a result, it created an individual vertical space having a centered plane as a circle or a square, on top of which mysterious and transcendent space was created through liberal, creative, and symbolic artistry based on Hellenistic imagination. 2) Basilican Style church architecture with the simple rectangular plane and it's horizontality, the passage(nave) toward the Lord's Table, the monotonous and repetitive pillar rows, definite segmentation of the space and the wall, and normative, orderly, solemn, and magnificent space plan implies that the Basilican church was the realistic church on the earth which could be recognized in the concrete. It seems that this reflected the spirit of the early Christianity based on the pragmatic Roman culture and solemn but strict and present-oriented Western theology emphasizing the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. And also, the long passage(nave) from the entrance of a Basilican church to the sanctuary and a long and solemn parade of Western Church through it was the necessary pilgrimage process to approach Jesus Christ, which suggests that the Pelagian thought - claiming later on through the 5th century's Pelagian debate that salvation could be obtained by accumulating virtue in the present world - prevailed in this era and seems to have affected the celebration of Western Church. Meanwhile, Byzantine church space symbolized the heaven and the earth through the use of geometrical figures; a square and a circle(dome) and implied that the church on the earth and the heaven were combined in one place and the worship of the Byzantine church was just the one of the heaven. Therefore, a worshipper, unlike in Basilican Style church architecture, came inside worship space right through the entrance, a border with the earth, which was transcendent and mysterious heavenly space full of spirituality and the God's house, the Temple. It was expression of the Eastern Church celebration based upon Hellenistic imagination and futuristic and eschatological Eastern theology laying its emphasis on freedom from the earth and future immortality, the glory of Jesus through the Resurrection and the Ascension, and the Eucharist as communion. 3) The fact that a Basilican church was constructed with longitudinal and hierarchical space, which was imitation of the Temple, means that the church after Constantine the Great was confined in the frame of the Old Testament although it had maintained the Jesus-centered faith and celebration since the Apostlic era. Therefore, worship inside a Basilican church was the beginning of the sacrifice of the Old Testament, which is related to Cyprian's 'the doctrine of the church' arguing that there's no salvation outside the church just like God could be reached only by the sacrifice inside the Temple in the Old Testament era. In addition, the sanctuary of a Basilican church was set aside as a holy place, defining the hierarchical relationship of the clergy and laity in charge of the celebration. Consequently, worship in Basilican church space began to gradually lose fraternal unity of faith in the early Christian community which held communion with one another, including clergy, in a house church and this turned out to be the beginning of a congregation becoming more and more of spectators excluded from worship. Futhermore, as Cyprian's 'the doctrine of the church' advocating 'Apostolic Succession of bishop' and 'Priesthood of God' came to gain their grounds, it grew into the idea that the salvation could be done only by the church and clergy or left room for saintworship and intercessory faith. In contrast, the Byzantine church space, which identified the physical center of space with the center of the celebration in single center-oriented space, was equal under the dome(the heaven), and likewise, all of the worshippers were equal in the ritual of worship around which they were standing. It was worship full of participation showing unity of the community, the worshipper-oriented tradition of the early Christian community and the early Syrian tradition. In this, there was no need for a mediator between an individual worshipper and God, and it enabled him to face God in person in worship. 4) The Lord's Table in Basilican church space, which is particularly highlighted with a canopy(baldachino) and ornamentation in a single apse and placed as the only visual focus, shows the doctrine of the Trinity of the Western Church emphasizing the one divine substance(one ousia). And the sanctuary where the Lord's Table symbolizing Jesus and the holy picture of Jesus drawn above it means that it is a special place on the earth connecting a worshipper and God through the Mediator Jesus. This seems to reflect Justin Matyre and Origen's theology which suggested 'Logos Christology' as a mediator between human and God. On the other hand, the 'triple apse type' in Byzantine church space, reflects the doctrine of the Trinity of the Eastern Church which focused on three persons(three hypostases). And it appears that the image of Jesus looking down from the dome, the Virgin Mary representing the mother of God(teotokos), and a variety of images showing the life of Jesus reflects dyophysitism of the Eastern Church arguing that Jesus has two nature of complete divinity and complete humanity. 5) Nonetheless, both styles show too magnificent and splendid architecture as they are national churches combined with imperial and religious power. This phenomenon implies that church architecture undermines the substance of Christianity. 3. Lessons from the early Christian church architecture These days, the churches all over the world tend to be separated between a small number of rapidly growing large-sized mega churches and a number of declining small ones. Along with this phenomenon, church architecture is considered as the best instrument for the growth of a church and mega churches are constructing huge and splendid buildings while small ones cannot even afford their own worship place. Nevertheless, mega churches becomes extremely secularized pursuing capitalism, and church architecture becomes convenience-oriented instead of considering Christian spirit and theology. As a result, some of church buildings are hard to distinguish from commercial ones and even anachronistic copies of medieval Christian church architecture appear. Furthermore, celebration tradition and theology disappears in worship of the modern church which instead becomes a service stimulating one's superficial sense, and worship itself is becoming more of a human-oriented rather than God-oriented phenomenon. Accordingly, worship space is turing into a theater or an event hall. The early Christian church architecture makes suggestions as follows to this kind of phenomenon. 1) In simple and frugal aspects of Basilican church architecture, humbleness of Jesus is found lowering himself to take care of the poor and the suppressed and accomplishing his salvation of mankind. This shows that splendid, luxurious, complicated, twisted and commercialized modern church architecture is against the spirit of Jesus Christ. 2) The normative, orderly, and solemn atmosphere of Basilican church architecture space shows devoutness of worship as it is given to God. This points out the problems of worship space in the modern church that, for so-called 'seeker-sensitve worship' or 'open worship' which is held under overly festive atmosphere, it became disordered, event-oriented, and just like a concert hall. 3) Unity, equality, and the spiritual atmosphere through transcendence of space shown in the centralized single space of Byzantine church architecture provides a clue to the ground on which the modern church can recover its lost liturgical theology and this is a basic direction which worship and its space design of the future church should persue. 4) Influence of secular power shown in both styles reminds us of the same problems of modern church architecture affected by capitalistic power.
The aim of this study is to interpret the characteristics of early Christian church architecture by theologies in those times. To attain this objective, the important features of theologies, including church history, worship and doctrines, and church architecture in the early Christian times are first pursued. And then, the relationship between the two are analysed. Finally, the theological meanings are interpreted from the relationship and lessons applicable for comtemporary church architecture are abstracted. The results of this study are as follows. 1. The early Christian community before Constantine the Great, at first, gathered at one of its member's house as a house church, and later, came to have the Domus Ecclesiae which is a modified house or the early Syrian church copied from the Jewish sinagogue as its own church building. The house church gathered around a table to share its bread waiting for the Second Coming of Christ without any celebration. Therefore, worship and gathering in the house church are assumed to be very familiar and their spatial atmosphere to reflect pure piety and unity as a eschatological community. On the other hand, both the Domus Ecclesiae and the early Syrian churchs reflected the celebrations and the church organizations which were advanced to a certain degree and also included a variety of functions such as baptism, education, and voluntary service. Especially, the early Syrian church emphasized Christian symbolization together with those functions. That is, according to the function of the celebration which consisted of two parts, the center of worship became dual. The Lord's Table was placed on the east side, which symbolized Jesus Christ and his second coming, so that it could become a visual and symbolic focus of the worship space, while the pulpit was placed on the center of the hall making it convenient for a congregation to gather around it listening to and watching the Word together. Worship started from gathering around the bema to listen to the Word, and then proceeded to follow the bishop to the Lord's Table and participate in the Eucharist. This means that the early Syrian worship was community-oriented based upon equality and emphasized participation of a congregation. 2. Church architecture after Constantine the Great created and developed two representative styles: Basilican Style and Byzantine Style. Basilican Style of church architecture adopted Roman Basilican Style in the early 4th century and developed it into one of the major Western Church architecture styles, which became the basis of Romanesque and Gothic Style of the medieval Catholic Church and even had a influence on the modern Catholic and Protestant Church which originated from the Western Church. On the other hand, the Byzantine Style, which started in the 6th century, originated from martyrium and baptistery architecture style which adopted Roman tomb architecture, and then became a prototype for Eastern Church architecture. The following are the characteristics of those two styles which are comparatively studied from the theological point of view. 1) Basilican Style church architecture adopted Roman Basilican Style, which reflected the Roman culture of rationalism and pragmatism and especially abstinent ethics of Stoicism, as its basic model, and with this, combined the longitudinal and hierarchical space concept of the Temple and Christian symbolism of the Lord's Table in the early Syrian church. Consequently, it created horizontal, longitudinal and hierarchical space with the long linear rectangular plane which focused solely on the Lord's Table symbolizing Jesus Christ. On the other hand, Byzantine Style originated from Hellenism and Byzantine culture based upon Hellenistic philosophy, and functionally combined the spatial concept of the early Syrian church emphasizing equality, participation and unity of a congregation in worship which consisted of the Word and the Eucharist, and the centralized spatial concept of the martyrium or the baptistery which had an altar in the center. As a result, it created an individual vertical space having a centered plane as a circle or a square, on top of which mysterious and transcendent space was created through liberal, creative, and symbolic artistry based on Hellenistic imagination. 2) Basilican Style church architecture with the simple rectangular plane and it's horizontality, the passage(nave) toward the Lord's Table, the monotonous and repetitive pillar rows, definite segmentation of the space and the wall, and normative, orderly, solemn, and magnificent space plan implies that the Basilican church was the realistic church on the earth which could be recognized in the concrete. It seems that this reflected the spirit of the early Christianity based on the pragmatic Roman culture and solemn but strict and present-oriented Western theology emphasizing the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. And also, the long passage(nave) from the entrance of a Basilican church to the sanctuary and a long and solemn parade of Western Church through it was the necessary pilgrimage process to approach Jesus Christ, which suggests that the Pelagian thought - claiming later on through the 5th century's Pelagian debate that salvation could be obtained by accumulating virtue in the present world - prevailed in this era and seems to have affected the celebration of Western Church. Meanwhile, Byzantine church space symbolized the heaven and the earth through the use of geometrical figures; a square and a circle(dome) and implied that the church on the earth and the heaven were combined in one place and the worship of the Byzantine church was just the one of the heaven. Therefore, a worshipper, unlike in Basilican Style church architecture, came inside worship space right through the entrance, a border with the earth, which was transcendent and mysterious heavenly space full of spirituality and the God's house, the Temple. It was expression of the Eastern Church celebration based upon Hellenistic imagination and futuristic and eschatological Eastern theology laying its emphasis on freedom from the earth and future immortality, the glory of Jesus through the Resurrection and the Ascension, and the Eucharist as communion. 3) The fact that a Basilican church was constructed with longitudinal and hierarchical space, which was imitation of the Temple, means that the church after Constantine the Great was confined in the frame of the Old Testament although it had maintained the Jesus-centered faith and celebration since the Apostlic era. Therefore, worship inside a Basilican church was the beginning of the sacrifice of the Old Testament, which is related to Cyprian's 'the doctrine of the church' arguing that there's no salvation outside the church just like God could be reached only by the sacrifice inside the Temple in the Old Testament era. In addition, the sanctuary of a Basilican church was set aside as a holy place, defining the hierarchical relationship of the clergy and laity in charge of the celebration. Consequently, worship in Basilican church space began to gradually lose fraternal unity of faith in the early Christian community which held communion with one another, including clergy, in a house church and this turned out to be the beginning of a congregation becoming more and more of spectators excluded from worship. Futhermore, as Cyprian's 'the doctrine of the church' advocating 'Apostolic Succession of bishop' and 'Priesthood of God' came to gain their grounds, it grew into the idea that the salvation could be done only by the church and clergy or left room for saintworship and intercessory faith. In contrast, the Byzantine church space, which identified the physical center of space with the center of the celebration in single center-oriented space, was equal under the dome(the heaven), and likewise, all of the worshippers were equal in the ritual of worship around which they were standing. It was worship full of participation showing unity of the community, the worshipper-oriented tradition of the early Christian community and the early Syrian tradition. In this, there was no need for a mediator between an individual worshipper and God, and it enabled him to face God in person in worship. 4) The Lord's Table in Basilican church space, which is particularly highlighted with a canopy(baldachino) and ornamentation in a single apse and placed as the only visual focus, shows the doctrine of the Trinity of the Western Church emphasizing the one divine substance(one ousia). And the sanctuary where the Lord's Table symbolizing Jesus and the holy picture of Jesus drawn above it means that it is a special place on the earth connecting a worshipper and God through the Mediator Jesus. This seems to reflect Justin Matyre and Origen's theology which suggested 'Logos Christology' as a mediator between human and God. On the other hand, the 'triple apse type' in Byzantine church space, reflects the doctrine of the Trinity of the Eastern Church which focused on three persons(three hypostases). And it appears that the image of Jesus looking down from the dome, the Virgin Mary representing the mother of God(teotokos), and a variety of images showing the life of Jesus reflects dyophysitism of the Eastern Church arguing that Jesus has two nature of complete divinity and complete humanity. 5) Nonetheless, both styles show too magnificent and splendid architecture as they are national churches combined with imperial and religious power. This phenomenon implies that church architecture undermines the substance of Christianity. 3. Lessons from the early Christian church architecture These days, the churches all over the world tend to be separated between a small number of rapidly growing large-sized mega churches and a number of declining small ones. Along with this phenomenon, church architecture is considered as the best instrument for the growth of a church and mega churches are constructing huge and splendid buildings while small ones cannot even afford their own worship place. Nevertheless, mega churches becomes extremely secularized pursuing capitalism, and church architecture becomes convenience-oriented instead of considering Christian spirit and theology. As a result, some of church buildings are hard to distinguish from commercial ones and even anachronistic copies of medieval Christian church architecture appear. Furthermore, celebration tradition and theology disappears in worship of the modern church which instead becomes a service stimulating one's superficial sense, and worship itself is becoming more of a human-oriented rather than God-oriented phenomenon. Accordingly, worship space is turing into a theater or an event hall. The early Christian church architecture makes suggestions as follows to this kind of phenomenon. 1) In simple and frugal aspects of Basilican church architecture, humbleness of Jesus is found lowering himself to take care of the poor and the suppressed and accomplishing his salvation of mankind. This shows that splendid, luxurious, complicated, twisted and commercialized modern church architecture is against the spirit of Jesus Christ. 2) The normative, orderly, and solemn atmosphere of Basilican church architecture space shows devoutness of worship as it is given to God. This points out the problems of worship space in the modern church that, for so-called 'seeker-sensitve worship' or 'open worship' which is held under overly festive atmosphere, it became disordered, event-oriented, and just like a concert hall. 3) Unity, equality, and the spiritual atmosphere through transcendence of space shown in the centralized single space of Byzantine church architecture provides a clue to the ground on which the modern church can recover its lost liturgical theology and this is a basic direction which worship and its space design of the future church should persue. 4) Influence of secular power shown in both styles reminds us of the same problems of modern church architecture affected by capitalistic power.
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