Territories of Faith
Religion, Urban Planning and Demographic Change in Post-War Europe
Edited by Sven Sterken and Eva Weyns
A novel and interdisciplinary perspective on post-war church building
In the 1950s and 1960s, thousands of churches were built across Europe in an attempt to keep up with the continent's rapid urbanisation. This book addresses the immense effort related to the planning, financing, and construction of this new religious infrastructure. Going beyond aspects of style and liturgy, and transcending a focus on particular architects or regions, this volume considers church building at the crossroads of pastoral theology, religious sociology, and urban planning. Presenting the rich palette of strategies and methods deployed by congregations, dioceses, government bodies, and private patrons in their attempt to secure a religious presence in the rapidly modernising world, Territories of Faith offers a broad view of the practice of religion and its material expression in the fast-evolving (sub)urban landscapes of post-war Europe.Contributors: João Alves da Cunha (Universidade Católica Portuguesa), Alba Arboix-Alió (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya / Universitat de Barcelona), Umberto Bordoni (Scuola Beato Angelico), Angela Connelly (Manchester School of Architecture), Maria Antonietta Crippa (Politecnico di Milano), Kees Doevendans (TU Eindhoven / KU Leuven), Davide Fusari (Politecnico di Milano), Jesús García Herrero (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), Judi Loach (Cardiff University; Laboratoire de Recherche Historique Rhône-Alpes), João Luís Marques (Universidade do Porto), Mélanie Meynier-Philip (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon), Ellen Rowley (University College Dublin), Sofia Anja Singler (Cambridge University), Sven Sterken (KU Leuven), Marina Wesner (TU Berlin), Eva Weyns (KU Leuven), Ferdinando Zanzottera (Politecnico di Milano)
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).
Introduction
NEGOTIATION
1. Planning for Faith in Wythenshawe, Manchester
2. Lyons’s Post-War Churches
3. Constructing Country, Community and City
4. Faith in a Divided City
EXPERTISE
5. Rethinking the Urban Parish
6. Catholic Parishes in the Lisbon Master Plan of 1959
AUTHORITY
8. A Laboratory of Pastoral Modernity Church Building in Milan under Cardinal Montini and Enrico Mattei from 1955 to 1963
9. Reconstructing the Diocese of Barcelona
10. Mass Housing and the Catholic Hierarchy in Dublin, 1930s–1970s 305
11. Epilogue
Format: Edited volume - ebook
360 pages
Illustrated b/w
ISBN: 9789461664235
Publication: January 31, 2022
Series: KADOC-Studies on Religion, Culture and Society 30
Languages: English
Sven Sterken is professor at the Faculty of Architecture of KU Leuven.
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Erik Sidenvall, Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift 2022
'Territories of Faith' is an important contribution to the understanding of European postwar religious architecture that left the past behind in order to remain relevant in the present. The pan-European perspective also makes comparable the different approaches to liturgy but also the different interpretations of the role of the church in postwar urban contexts. A very interesting read!
German Postwar Modern, 7 December 2022
This edited collection focuses on the extraordinary flourishing of religious architecture in European cities between roughly 1945 and 1975. We are reminded throughout the volume – which concentrates largely on the Roman Catholic church – of the astonishing pace of building in this period [...] Through use, for example, of material in diocesan and municipal archives, we gain a rich understanding of the sociological mechanics behind so many architectural masterpieces of this era.
Territories of Faith is an important contribution to the understanding of church building, especially roman catholic, in post-war western Europe. It examines the processes that underpinned post-war church building, which so manifestly deviated from tradition. This book certainly contributes to a better appreciation of these usually atypical buildings. The focus of this book is primarily on roman catholic churches, which makes the essays more mutually comparable.
Marcus van der Meulen, FRH, https://www.frh-europe.org/territories-of-faith-church-and-the-post-war-city/