How to Read a Church: A Guide to Symbols and Images in Churches and Cathedrals

by Richard Taylor

Paperback, 2005

Barcode

5093

Call number

246 TAY

Status

Available

Call number

246 TAY

Pages

246

Description

Churches and cathedrals play an essential part in our heritage. As community-centred places of worship and as important tourist attractions, they are visited by millions of people every year. But churches were originally built to be read, and so they are packed with images, symbols and meanings that often need explanation for visitors. How to Read a Church is a lively and fascinating guide to what a visitor to a church is likely to find there and how to interpret the common images and meanings in church art and architecture. It will explain how to identify people, scenes, details and their significance, and will explore the symbolism of different animals, plants, colours, numbers and letters - and what this all means. It will be an essential guide for anyone who has ever visited / is visiting a church or cathedral, and for those who want to know more about these incredible buildings and the art they contain.… (more)

Publication

HiddenSpring (2005), Edition: unknown, 246 pages

ISBN

1587680300 / 9781587680304

Collection

Art in Christianity

Subjects

Christian art and symbolism

Church architecture

Church decoration and ornament

Symbolism in architecture

Rating

(37 ratings; 3.5)

User reviews

LibraryThing member mrtall

I was seriously disappointed in this book. It's meant to be a guide to help the untutored observer make more sense of what he sees in a traditional church or cathedral, but instead of some in-depth examples of such readings, the book's chapters comprise laundry lists of the most basic facts about

Jesus, the Bible and a few of the saints. So much space is used to try to fill in these foundational blanks that there's little time left to consider actual church architecture and decoration. The book's illustrations and diagrams are also incredibly basic. Not recommended.

Show Less

2 more

LibraryThing member JudithProctor

A very browsable guide to the meaning of all kinds of Christian symbols and icons. Want to know what symbols like raised hands and bulls mean in stained glass windows? Look them up and find out.

LibraryThing member setnahkt

A pleasant little guidebook for church tourists (mostly Christian; a few thing you might find in a synagogue are mentioned. Nothing for a temple to Kali or Huitzilopochtli, though; probably just as well.). I learned that “nave” is related to “navigate”, promoting the image of worshipers as

shipmates; “gargoyle” is related to “gargle”, tending back to their original purpose as downspouts; and a square halo on a painting or statue indicates the subject was alive when the image was made. How to Read a Church is concerned with symbols you might find in and around a church building, rather than church architecture; for example, it discusses the arch as a symbol (hands clasped in prayer, arms held aloft in worship) rather than explaining the difference between Gothic and Tudor arches. Easily pocketable and a light read, even if you’re not actually in a church at the time.

Show Less

Fewer