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Rating: 
Summary: Important study of religious architecture
Review: "Paul Ivey's thorough, readable, and well-illustrated book explains why so many [monumental, classical-style, Christian Science churches] exist and what they meant in their original contexts. . .Ivey's book will be interesting and useful for a broad audience. It demonstrates how a study of religious architecture can illuminate not just architectural history, but social and cultural history, the material culture of gender, and group identity." --as reviewed in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Rating:
Summary: Important study of religious architecture
Review: "Paul Ivey's thorough, readable, and well-illustrated book explains why so many [monumental, classical-style, Christian Science churches] exist and what they meant in their original contexts. . .Ivey's book will be interesting and useful for a broad audience. It demonstrates how a study of religious architecture can illuminate not just architectural history, but social and cultural history, the material culture of gender, and group identity." --as reviewed in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Rating:
Summary: A First Detailed Look at a Bygone Model
Review: The monumental 'bank-style' churches we normally associate with Christian Science in urban areas are the subject of Paul Ivey's excellent study, a first-ever history of any sort of the Christian Science 'field'. Although Ivey's book is the first extensive, stand-alone study to examine this period in the sociology of Christian Science, it is for the most part an architectural study. We see how original intent (religious teachings) makes its way into the public world of urban architecture, construction contracts, and finish materials. Solon Beman is the key figure here, a fine Chicago architect who is largely responsible for the 'Extension' of the Mother Church in Boston. Beman is the taproot of the style of architecture that became known for bright, modernized, comfortable, yet neo-classical monuments that sprang up in downtowns from coast to coast during this remarkable Christian Science building boom. We often look skeptically on these edifices, which a century later appear so pompous in their now hollowed-out urban areas, and whose futures are in serious doubt. However Ivey brings back life to these churches and shows us why they were not only suitable for their times, but socially progressive. In confining his focus just to this monumental, urban, pre-Depression segment of the Christian Science movement, he almost unnoticeably confines his historical examination to a certain type of Christian Scientist, to a type that is not altogether flattering. In fact, he seems to be saying that while the thrust of this church building movement shared certain undercurrents with the spirit of Mary Baker Eddy's teachings, there was an unmistakable self-consciousness about this vision of church, an overbearing push to be perceived publicly as prominent, legitimate, successful, and literally profitable to the worshiper. All this makes the religious aims of Christian Scientists appear rather superficial, even if Ivey's treatment of Eddy and Christian Science teachings is more balanced. If this characterization of the builders of these buildings may not be flattering, it may not be unreasonable. As Ivey himself makes clear, Eddy encouraged churches to bring historical Christian imagery up-to-date. For those not familiar with her teachings, she claimed, partly through spiritual healing, to "reinstate" primitive Christianity. The churches that Dr. Ivey examines largely ignore any such sentiment. Instead, they take as their prototype a more secular model of monument that was considered highly progressive in its day and place. The Christian Science movement based its entire urban church building movement upon this model. Having said that, Ivey does invoke a sympathetic view of what these builders accomplished. All in all, Ivey's is the first step in looking at the architecture of this religious movement. With work like this, we can assess how these individuals, apart from their own publicity, actually viewed the role of their church and its place in the world. In this study Ivey took the most prominent public image of this religious movement and tells us the story behind it with care and scholarly diligence that is truly impressive. [Reading his sources you almost begin to feel exhausted yourself.] As a good storyteller however, Ivey brings light and life to his subject - a subject that today seems to keep its secrets locked tight behind three story columns and soaring white domes.
Rating:
Summary: A First Detailed Look at a Bygone Model
Review: The monumental 'bank-style' churches we normally associate with Christian Science in urban areas are the subject of Paul Ivey's excellent study, a first-ever history of any sort of the Christian Science 'field'. Although Ivey's book is the first extensive, stand-alone study to examine this period in the sociology of Christian Science, it is for the most part an architectural study. We see how original intent (religious teachings) makes its way into the public world of urban architecture, construction contracts, and finish materials. Solon Beman is the key figure here, a fine Chicago architect who is largely responsible for the 'Extension' of the Mother Church in Boston. Beman is the taproot of the style of architecture that became known for bright, modernized, comfortable, yet neo-classical monuments that sprang up in downtowns from coast to coast during this remarkable Christian Science building boom. We often look skeptically on these edifices, which a century later appear so pompous in their now hollowed-out urban areas, and whose futures are in serious doubt. However Ivey brings back life to these churches and shows us why they were not only suitable for their times, but socially progressive. In confining his focus just to this monumental, urban, pre-Depression segment of the Christian Science movement, he almost unnoticeably confines his historical examination to a certain type of Christian Scientist, to a type that is not altogether flattering. In fact, he seems to be saying that while the thrust of this church building movement shared certain undercurrents with the spirit of Mary Baker Eddy's teachings, there was an unmistakable self-consciousness about this vision of church, an overbearing push to be perceived publicly as prominent, legitimate, successful, and literally profitable to the worshiper. All this makes the religious aims of Christian Scientists appear rather superficial, even if Ivey's treatment of Eddy and Christian Science teachings is more balanced. If this characterization of the builders of these buildings may not be flattering, it may not be unreasonable. As Ivey himself makes clear, Eddy encouraged churches to bring historical Christian imagery up-to-date. For those not familiar with her teachings, she claimed, partly through spiritual healing, to "reinstate" primitive Christianity. The churches that Dr. Ivey examines largely ignore any such sentiment. Instead, they take as their prototype a more secular model of monument that was considered highly progressive in its day and place. The Christian Science movement based its entire urban church building movement upon this model. Having said that, Ivey does invoke a sympathetic view of what these builders accomplished. All in all, Ivey's is the first step in looking at the architecture of this religious movement. With work like this, we can assess how these individuals, apart from their own publicity, actually viewed the role of their church and its place in the world. In this study Ivey took the most prominent public image of this religious movement and tells us the story behind it with care and scholarly diligence that is truly impressive. [Reading his sources you almost begin to feel exhausted yourself.] As a good storyteller however, Ivey brings light and life to his subject - a subject that today seems to keep its secrets locked tight behind three story columns and soaring white domes.
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