Book Review: THE CHURCH BUILDING AS A SACRED PLACE: Beauty, Transcendence, and the Eternal

Although I admit I really enjoyed the many pictures of beautiful churches, this is so much more than just a picture book.   There is a lot more involved with church design and architecture than I knew, or most readers might know.  Here are few of the chapters included (there are 23 chapters and 3 appendixes):  

The Altar as the Center of the Church:Principles of Design  
The Purpose of a Church Learning from Rome  
Canonical Church Documents  
The Sizes of Churches (the dimensions of the most well-known Basilica's and Cathedrals world-wide)   

The clear emphasis is on the nature and purpose of churches.  Mr. Stroik is a true champion of beauty in churches and indeed, here is one of his predictions for  the future of Catholic Architecture:  

A renaissance of Catholic architecture will ensue, when large numbers of the lay faithful and the Church leadership begin demanding beauty in the house of God An excellint and inspiring book.
 

http://www.stroik.com/press/the-church-building-as-a-sacred-place/