Beautiful Churches and Their Meaning

[MoreCoffee]

San Clemente in Rome is probably older. It was a Mithraeum before it became a church.

I think that it was built just before the year 1100 AD. That's not quite as old as 125 AD.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

I think that it was built just before the year 1100 AD. That's not quite as old as 125 AD.

Well the current building, yes. But the basement level is around AD 80ish as I understand.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Well the current building, yes. But the basement level is around AD 80ish as I understand.

Yes, but the equivalent for the pantheon is between 27 BC and 14 BC - having been built in the reign of Augustus by Marcus Agrippa.

 

[ChristsSoldier115]

Using a building that was used for something else for a couple hundred years before is cheating MoreCoffee.

I wonder what the longest continually used church is. I got a feeling Santa Maria is a contender. I think I'm going to look this up.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Using a building that was used for something else for a couple hundred years before is cheating MoreCoffee.

I wonder what the longest continually used church is. I got a feeling Santa Maria is a contender. I think I'm going to look this up.

Saint Peter's has a claim on that but it was rebuilt in the 16th century. It was originally built in the early 4th century and Christians had worshipped where it stands from the first century.

 

[ChristsSoldier115]

Saint Peter's has a claim on that but it was rebuilt in the 16th century. It was originally built in the early 4th century and Christians had worshipped where it stands from the first century.

It is hard because I do not think actual church buildings weren't around until at least the 4th century I believe, before that it was somebody's house.

 

[ChristsSoldier115]

The only really old church I have seen with my own eyes was the The Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Bohol. I just looked it up and it is getting close to about 300 years old. Too bad that earthquake in 2013 destroyed a good chunk of it.

 

[bbbbbbb]

Speaking of buildings that get repurposed, there is the famous Crystal Cathedral in California, now known as Christ Cathedral. It definitely is not the oldest church building in existence, by any definition.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

Yes, but the equivalent for the pantheon is between 27 BC and 14 BC - having been built in the reign of Augustus by Marcus Agrippa.

Ohh, you're right.

 

[WirSindBettler]

Saint Peter's has a claim on that but it was rebuilt in the 16th century. It was originally built in the early 4th century and Christians had worshipped where it stands from the first century.

Rebuilt in the 16th century making it the largest Lutheran church in the world.

 

[bbbbbbb]

Speaking of famous Lutheran churches that were reconstructed, there is the stunning Frauenkirche in Dresden, Germany which was destroyed in WWII and reconstructed at the end of the past century.

See here for more images - https://www.google.com/search?q=dre...%2Faltar-der-frauenkirche-dresden%2F;797;1200

 

[bbbbbbb]

By contrast there is the famous Kaiser Wilhelm Gedactniskirche in Berlin which was built as a memorial to Kaiser Wilhelm after WWI, was heavily bombed in WWII and remains a stabilized ruin with a modern church attached to it, as a perpetual reminder of the destruction of war.

See here for more images - https://www.google.com/search?q=kai...r-Wilhelm-Ged%25C3%25A4chtniskirche;2692;2053

 

[ThatTrueLight]

Churches are the places where the community gathers in order to bridge the gap between heaven and earth. They facilitate looking above. That's why the trend in church architecture has been to either create extremely tall buildings that focus our gaze upwards (mostly western) or ever-larger domes that signify God's rule over the entire cosmos (mostly eastern). Church architecture is theology in stone.

I can't imagine the cost to build these things. That must be astronomical and makes me look up in wonder.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

I can't imagine the cost to build these things. That must be astronomical and makes me look up in wonder.

About as much money as banks have in real estate. Which is exactly what they were: surety for investment. Except unlike modern banks, they also served the function of being houses of worship.

 

[ThatTrueLight]

About as much money as banks have in real estate.

What are we talking here, Billions of dollars in building materials and real estate?

 

[abysmul]

What are we talking here, Billions of dollars in building materials and real estate?

Maybe if they all spend a few more billions of dollars they can build one of these "bridges" right up to God Himself in the heavens above! It sure looks like they are trying, or at least trying to outdo each other.

 

[ChristsSoldier115]

Lutheran churches seem to have a trend of having enormous church organs. The local one here also has a giant organ that reaches to the sky.

 

[ThatTrueLight]

Maybe if they all spend a few more billions of dollars they can build one of these "bridges" right up to God Himself in the heavens above! It sure looks like they are trying, or at least trying to outdo each other.

The remarkable thing for me, and they are remarkable is that they have nothing to do with the habitation of God through the Spirit.

That's more like where two or more are gathered together in His name.. and that could even be in a manger for animals if necessary.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

 

[abysmul]

The remarkable thing for me, and they are remarkable is that they have nothing to do with the habitation of God through the Spirit.

That's more like where two or more are gathered together in His name.. and that could even be in a manger for animals if necessary.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

They are remarkable to me, in architecture and design I can usually appreciate, even stand in awe at some of them. Again, in context they are pretty gross to me.

 

[GratiaCorpusChristi]

The remarkable thing for me, and they are remarkable is that they have nothing to do with the habitation of God through the Spirit.

That's more like where two or more are gathered together in His name.. and that could even be in a manger for animals if necessary.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Having grown up on a farm, I can guarantee that when you have a choice, you won't want to meet with over believers in a manure-filled stall.