Victorian churches were often of high quality, reflecting in physical terms the intense theological debates of the time. This highly-illustrated book by a leading authority describes many of the finest examples. Many churches were built in England during the reign of Queen Victoria: most were in various varieties of Gothic Revival. Often exquisitely furnished, they were visible expressions of the presence and importance of religion at the time. Their architectural qualities reflected aspirations of clergy, laity, and individual benefactors. The finest were the results of passionate commitment to an architecture soundly based on scholarly studies known as Ecclesiology. James Stevens Curl places English churches of the period in their complex social and denominational settings, giving comprehensive accounts of the religious atmosphere and controversies of the times. He charts the progress and development of the Gothic Revival, explains differences in the architecture of various denominations, outlines the influences of the chief protagonists involved, and describes the demands made on craftsmen and industry to produce the materials, furnishings, and fittings necessary in making some of the finest buildings ever created in England. He reveals something of the individuals and events that shaped the religious climate of the epoch, while specially commissioned illustrations reveal the rich variety found in Victorian churches.
Professor James Stevens Curl has an international reputation as an architectural historian whose publications span Classical, Georgian and Victorian architecture, and with Susan Wilson he wrote the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture, published by Oxford University Press in 2016. His Making Dystopia; The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism (OUP, 2018) is a combative critique of the Modernist movement and, while controversial, asks questions about our urban landscapes to which answers are long overdue.
Title: English Victorian Churches: Architecture, Faith, & Revival
Author: James Stevens Curl
ISBN: 9781739822934
Binding:
Publisher: John Hudson Publishing
Publication Date: 2022-10-03
Number of Pages: 240
Weight: 0.8802 kg
[B]eautifully illustrated study that makes a valuable contribution to the recognition of Catholic churches. -- Elena Curti * The Tablet *
[The book] can be read as a work of scholarship; one that spans two distinct but related disciplines, namely Victorian church architecture and nineteenth-century ecclesiology. As an authoritative survey and critique of the finest examples of nineteenth-century English church building, it would be difficult to better. -- JOURNAL OF VICTORIAN CULTURE
A very full and eloquent guide ... The architectural theories are clearly set in the developing ideas-aesthetic and ecclesiastical-of the time. -- Selby Whittingham * The Jackdaw *
Illustrated with large numbers of excellent colour images, it sets churches of the period in historical context and crosses the denominational divides that so often obscure an overall understanding of what was going on. It is a timely reminder of the extraordinary riches of English church buildings. -- John Goodall * Country Life *