The problem
with new-style churches
isn't just that they're ugly --
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Holy Trinity Church, Copenhagen 
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they actually distort the Faith
and lead Catholics
away from Catholicism.
So argues Michael S. Rose in the eye-opening pages Ugly as Sin, the book that banishes forever the notion that those of us who love traditional-style churches are motivated simply by nostalgia.
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In terms that non-architects can understand, Rose shows that far more is at stake: modern churches actually violate the three natural laws of church architecture and lead Catholics to worship, quite simply, a false god:
Holy Trinity Church, Vienna, Austria
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Not content to limit himself to theory, Rose in Ugly as Sin takes you on a revealing tour through a traditional church and a modern church.
He shows conclusively how the traditional church communicates the Faith . . .
Old St. Mary's Church, Cincinnati, OH
. . . while the barren modern one
leaves you empty and alone:
Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Cincinnati, OH
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In the process, Rose gives you a renewed understanding, love, and gratitude for the gift of faith that is your traditional church:
St. Francis Church, Petoskey, MI
. . . and a keen sense of just what's so wrong with modern churches that look like anything but churches:
St. Charles Borromeo Church, Kettering, OH
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Here are solid arguments (as easy to explain as they are hard to refute!) and practical tools you can use to reverse this dangerous trend toward desacralized churches -- and to make our churches once again into magnificent Houses of God!
Ugly as Sin
Why They Changed Our Churches
from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces
-- and How We Can Change
Them Back Again
by
Michael S. Rose
256 pgs pbk $18.95
Includes more than 80 telling photos,
a glossary of church and architectural terms,
and other helpful appendices.
1-800-888-9344
www.SophiaInstitute.com
"Must reading for all who've seen butcher blocks replace altars, tabernacles banished to closets, and the faithful corralled into barren monstrosities that mimic the mall, the gym, and the warehouse."
Paul Thigpen
Blood of the Martyrs
"Church architecture is one of the most painful forms of theological destruction. Rose gives us hope."
Fr. Benedict Groeschel
Journey Toward God
"A cry of protest against a new form of blasphemy: in stone and cement."
Alice von Hildebrand
By Love Refined |
"Written with the humor and with the great passion we have come to associate with good Catholics who love their Church. And, unlike many critiques, this one ends with positive proposals that can be of real, practical help."
Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP
Christendom Awake
"Michael Rose shows us here that much of contemporary church architecture is an act of war against prayer and the spiritual life."
Charles E. Rice
The Winning Side
"Even those who disagree will appreciate his entry-level explanations of key architectural concepts."
Publishers Weekly |
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