Canadian Churches: An Architectural History.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

The architecture of churches cannot be examined in isolation from the dual context of religion and society. Just as the purpose for which a church is designed and built—Christian worship—influences its architecture, so too does the geography, economics, and culture of the society for which it is erected. The Richardsons examine, and John de Visser photographically documents, more than 250 churches that mirror the self-image, beliefs, and aspirations of diverse Canadian communities. The scope is massive, covering all provinces and territories, spanning more than two centuries, encompassing at least 25 religious denominations, and including both interiors and exteriors. It includes simple meeting houses, chapels, churches, cathedrals, shrines, basilicas, and temples. The selection includes the oldest, the largest, the most famous, the typical, and the unusual. There are churches built of mud and straw brick, timber, log, stone, brick, concrete, glulam, steel, and glass. There are buildings in the neo-Georgian, neo-Gothic, Romanesque and Byzantium revival, Arts and Crafts, Baroque revival, and Modernist styles. There’s a full serving of steeples, spires, domes, arches, towers, finials, belfries, baldachin, and columns, plus lots of examples of interior decorative features such as paintings, sculptures, gilding, stained glass, and carvings.

Recognizing that architecture is rooted in specific social settings, there are churches that are tiny one-room huts, colossal cathedrals, churches that show the influence of wars, immigration, European and British architectural thinking, churches that reflect the rural-urban-suburban population shifts, buildings that show the impact of First Nations culture, even churches shaped to suggest an igloo. Stylistically, there’s the full spectrum from bible chapels that are “aggressively unsophisticated,” to the show-off monstrosities of high gothic decadence and the equally absurd distortions of ultra-modernism.

The work is a lesson in both architectural terminology and the vocabulary of church “geography”—nave, chancel, apse, transepts, narthex, clerestory, etc.

Yet it is not only its huge scope that characterizes the work. Extensive, meticulous research makes the book an unsurpassed reference tool. The amount of detail is unprecedented. For example, for each of the 250 churches illustrated, the caption includes name, location, denomination, completion date, date of major renovations, building material, architect and/or builder, and commentary on special features or influences.

The detailed text, hundreds of excellent photos and captions are supplemented with many floor plans and drawings, a bibliography, glossary of architectural terms, and indices by church name, location, and denomination.

A well-timed work, it surveys Canadian churches before the inevitable losses of the next decade as urban and rural church memberhip declines while suburban amphitheatre “megachurch” attendance surges.  A visual feast, this book gives Canadians a valuable last-minute portrait of an integral part of our heritage and identify.