10.07.2015 Views

Download Issue PDF - The Institute for Sacred Architecture

Download Issue PDF - The Institute for Sacred Architecture

Download Issue PDF - The Institute for Sacred Architecture

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

ArticlesSaint Georgeous Church, Rehab, Jordan, of 230 AD, whichstands atop an archeological site of a first century churchdiscovered in 2008.thesis in liturgical circles took the domusecclesiae as the architectural model <strong>for</strong>pre-Constantinian Christian architecture.<strong>The</strong> common vision <strong>for</strong> new parishesbuilt in the wake of Vatican II wasthere<strong>for</strong>e toward simpler, more domestically-scaledbuildings in emulation ofthe domus ecclesiae in which Christianssupposedly gathered be<strong>for</strong>e the Imperialapprobation of Christianity in thefourth century.<strong>The</strong> only problem <strong>for</strong> this romanticmodel of a domestic residential architecture,built <strong>for</strong> a small gathering ofearly Christians celebrating a simpleagape meal, is its dubious merit.Domus ecclesiae―popular among liturgiststo emphasize the communalnature of the assembly―is not a particularlyapt term. More to the point,it is simply anachronistic. <strong>The</strong> phrasedomus ecclesiae is not found in Scripture.No first, second, or third-centuryauthor uses the term to describe thechurch building. <strong>The</strong> phrase domusecclesiae cannot be found to describeany church building be<strong>for</strong>e the Peaceof Constantine (313 A.D.), but ratherseems used to imply a building ownedby the Christians, such as a bishop’sresidence. 16<strong>The</strong>re are many other ancient termsused to identify the church building,but domus Dei seems to be of particularimportance. Throughout the NewTestament, the assembly of Christiansis called domus Dei, the house of God.Paul’s passage in 1 Tim 3:15 could notbe clearer: in domo Dei … quae est ecclesiaDei vivi (“the house of God, whichis the church of the living God”). Likewise,domus Dei or its derivative domesticiDei (household of God) is foundPhoto: rihabresearchcenter.blogspot.comin Eph 2:19, Heb10:21, and 1 Pt 4:17.Following scripture,Tertullian (d.220) used domusDei in a way thatcan only mean achurch building.This key term,domus Dei andits Greek equivalentoikos tou theou,is found in Hippolytus(d. 235),Clement of Alexandria(d. 215), andEusebius (d. 339),among others. Buteven oikos or domusdoes not suggestany humble residential or domestic association.Oikos is generally a house,but it can also serve to describe a temple(as in a house of the gods). Similarly,domus could also refer to the grandestof buildings, such as the emperor’spalace—domus divina—or Nero’s ostentatiousDomus Aurea. <strong>The</strong>se are hardlysmall-scale and intimate associations. Itseems that long be<strong>for</strong>e the time of Constantine,the Church had already begunto move out of the residential environmentswe read of in the book of Actsand the letters of Paul.Textual Counter Evidence<strong>The</strong> problem is that we know verylittle about pre-Constantinian liturgyor Christian architecture. Yet from thescant literary evidence we do have, weshould not reject the strong probabilitythat even in the second century theChurch owned land and built specialbuildings <strong>for</strong> the community. <strong>The</strong> earliestrecord of the special purpose churchbuilding seems to be from Chronicle ofArbela, a fifth-century Syrian manuscriptwhich tells us that Bishop Isaac(Ishaq) (135-148) “had built a large wellorderedchurch which exists today.” 17<strong>The</strong> Chronicles of Edessa mention aChristian church destroyed in a citywideflood around 201. 18 Around theyear 225 A.D. Christians acquired apiece of public property in a disputewith inn-keepers to build a churchwith the explicit blessing of EmperorSeverus Alexander, who determined“that it was better <strong>for</strong> some sort of agod to be worshipped there than <strong>for</strong>the place to be handed to the keepers ofan eating-house.” 19<strong>The</strong> pagan Porphyry (d. 305), writingin the second half of the third century,attacks the Christians who, in “imitatingthe erection of the temples, buildvery large houses 20 , into which they gotogether and pray.” 21 <strong>The</strong> Emperor Aurelian(d. 275) makes passing referenceto a Christian church (Christianorumecclesia) in contrast to his own religioustemple (templo deorum omnia). 22 Lactantius(d. 320) recounts the destructionof the church in Nicomedia, calling it a“lofty edifice” and describes how it was“situated on rising ground, within theview of the palace” and how the emperorsDiocletian and Galerius couldsee it and debated whether to burn it tothe ground or pull it down. 23 It seemsthat, if the Emperor of the RomanEmpire knew a Christian church whenhe saw one, it was no simple obscurehouse.<strong>The</strong> Problem of PlaceDespite the textual evidence thatargues <strong>for</strong> significant church buildingsbe<strong>for</strong>e the age of Constantine, thedearth of archeological evidence <strong>for</strong><strong>for</strong>mal church buildings has seemedpersuasive. With the recent discoveryof a pre-Constantinian basilica atAqaba it seems timely <strong>for</strong> liturgistsand architects to reconsider the validityof the residential domus ecclesiae asa meaningful model <strong>for</strong> contemporarychurch architecture. <strong>The</strong> Aqabachurch dates com<strong>for</strong>tably to 300, andperhaps as early as 280 A.D. 24 We haveno knowledge of what other pre-Constantinianchurches looked like, butwe can have certainty that Christianshad special, purpose-built, urban-scalechurches be<strong>for</strong>e the Emancipation in313 A.D. We should there<strong>for</strong>e reevaluatethe claims about the “authenticity”of the simple house church as ameaningful architectural model <strong>for</strong> theChristian assembly both in the earlyChurch and <strong>for</strong> today.However, we should also considerthe emotional impetus <strong>for</strong> the housechurch. <strong>The</strong> romantic notion of theprimitive house church has a strongsense of attraction: the desire <strong>for</strong> morecommunitarian and domestic churchbuildings is enticing in the alienatingcondition of post-agrarian and post-industrialmodern life. Both the massivescale of the modern city and the anonymityand placelessness of suburbansprawl contribute to the desire<strong>for</strong> a sense of domestic rootedness. In-14 <strong>Sacred</strong> <strong>Architecture</strong> <strong>Issue</strong> 21 2012

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!