In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages

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Splendidly illustrated and very informative

Reconnecting with Tradition in a Revolutionary Way

In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages
Michael S. Rose
Manufacturer: Mesa Folio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Religious Buildings | Building Types & Styles | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | History & Periods | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Roman Catholicism | Catholicism | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0967637120

Book Description

Architects, says Rose, have always understood that architecture isn't inconsequential. Sacred architecture, in particular, has an immense influence on how people think and feel — and even on how they pray and believe. In Tiers of Glory explains why, and it does so from the perspective of history and tradition.

Rose (author of The Renovation Manipulation and Ugly as Sin) here provides a clear, comprehensive summation of the development of Catholic Church architecture from the Church's earliest days to modern times. He identifies the canons that have been common to Catholic churches throughout history — from Roman basilicas to Byzantine and Carolingian churches, from pilgrimage shrines to Gothic churches, from Renaissance classicism to Baroque opulence — that is, elements that have been common to churches in every age except our own.

Rose details how this organic development has been broken by the banal, uninspiring, and sometimes ugly church buildings of today. But he insists that Catholics need not simply endure these blunders and missteps. With a series of enlightening prescriptions for the future of Catholic church architecture, Rose explains how the Church can restore continuity with the great churches of the past — and why it is crucial to do so.

Gloriously illustrated with over 200 full-color photos and renderings, In Tiers of Glory is a much needed and welcome addition to the literature on church architecture.

Customer Reviews:

Splendidly illustrated and very informative.......2004-11-18

Michael Rose's In Tiers of Glory is an excellent follow-up to his earlier book Ugly As Sin. Whereas the earlier book delved into the theology and philosophy of church architecture in order to show how it had been derailed by modernists with an obsession with novelty and an aversion to orthodox Christianity, In Tiers of Glory examines the historical aspects of the Catholic tradition in church architecture. Written for the layman, it is amazingly clear, concise and accurate. Chapter 10 on the return of Iconoclasm and the advent of modernism is worth the price alone. Its greatest asset perhaps is that it is generously illustrated with dozens of examples of beautiful church architecture (along with a few warty toads for contrast).

Reconnecting with Tradition in a Revolutionary Way.......2004-10-28

The standard stereotype of history, architectural or otherwise, imagines humanity leaping from one sea-change to the next. In the study of architectural history, one style gives way to the next as each generation of designers seek to outdo one another in the name of progress. However, with In Tiers of Glory Michael Rose seeks to understand not these ruptures but the more important element of the underlying continuity of principle that runs throughout the development of church design. It is this unity which ties the various styles of Christian architecture together like a vast tectonic Communion of Saints. And, as Michael Rose shows us, it is the deliberate rupture of those common elements that stretch across the centuries, done in the name of a false modernity, that has led to the current decadence of sacred art.

Unlike past attempts to reform Christian architecture, art and worship, In Tiers of Glory is not merely revivalist: it proposes no single idyllic golden age of architecture but instead opens our eyes to see the beauties of every age (and the organic continuity which ties them together) and urges us to learn from them, synthesize them, and with these lessons, evangelize the art of the future.

Rose does us a great service by liberating us from the trap of the "spirit of the age" and showing us we can choose beauty over banality. Indeed, as he shows us, many architects already have. In his final chapter, "The Wisdom of Hindsight," he showcases the works of contemporary architects, such as Thomas Gordon Smith and Duncan Stroik, who have drawn on more than two thousand years of experience rather than merely pursue change for change's sake. Magnificently illustrated with color photographs and specially-commissioned watercolor renderings, In Tiers of Glory is not only a joy for the committed architect to read, but also a must for any layperson looking to be educated about the history--and the future--of church architecture.

In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages.(Book Review) : An article from: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life

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In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages.(Book Review) : An article from: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life
Catesby Leigh
Manufacturer: Institute on Religion and Public Life
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 479 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages.(Book Review)
Author: Catesby Leigh
Publication: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Issue: 159 Page: 59(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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POLAND, 1946: THE PHOTOGRAPHS AND LETTERS OF JOHN VACHON
John (ed. by Ann Vachon) Vachon
Manufacturer: Smithsonian Institution
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J3SLJA

Book Description

Step into the Eisner Award-nominated world of Jay Stephens - a place where Roald Dahl walks arm-in-arm with Salvadore Dali and Winsor McCay to create fun and hilarious comics where the only thing that can be expected is to never know what's coming next.

Customer Reviews:

Fraught with Hilarity!.......2005-01-17

The edition of this book that I have is from Black Eye not Oni Press. I'm assuming they're the same as far as the content is concerned. In which case I wanted to take issue with Amazon's suggested reading level. At first glance this may appear to be a comic about cute-talking cartoon characters but some of the humour is definitely aimed at adults.
That being said this is one of the funniest comics I've ever read. It makes me laugh each time I read it.

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The Land of Nod Treasury

Manufacturer: Black Eye Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0969887418

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The day of the Confederacy;: A chronicle of the embattled South, (The Yale chronicles of America series, Allen Johnson, editor ... [v. 30])
Nathaniel W Stephenson
Manufacturer: United States Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B000855HX2

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Embattled Editor
Stephen G. Weisner
Manufacturer: University Press of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Journalists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0819156043

Book Description

The first biography of the noted "Springfield Republican" editor since 1885. Co-published with the Institute for Massachusetts Studies.

Book Description

This engaging and important book is a critique of American education wrapped in a memoir. Drawing on his fifty years as teacher, principal, researcher, professor, and dean, Theodore R. Sizer identifies three crucial areas in which policy discussion about public education has been dangerously silent. He argues that we must break that silence and rethink how to educate our youth.
Sizer discusses our failure to differentiate between teaching and learning, noting that formal schooling must adapt to and confront the powerful influences found outside traditional classrooms. He examines the practical as well as philosophical necessity for sharing policy-making authority among families, schools, and centralized governments. And he denounces our fetish with order, our belief that the familiar routines that have existed for generations are the only way to bring learning to children. Sizer provides alternatives to these failed routines—guidelines for creating a new educational system that would, among other things, break with wasteful traditional practice, utilize agencies and arrangements beyond the school building, and design each child’s educational program around his or her particular needs and potential.

Customer Reviews:

Prof. Sizer Has Experience But Lacks Credibility.......2005-01-24

I first encountered Ted Sizer's views on education in his course on The American School at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Fall of 1963. The idea that most surprised me was his desire to model Harvard's role in American education after that taken by Dewey and his disciples who had trained a high number of America's superintendents during an earlier era. He told us that those of us in the M.A. in Teaching program had been selected in part because we would go on to leadership in various schools and school systems, and could effect change. We would carry the "message" of Harvard regarding our respective disciplines and about the running of the schools as a whole. This struck me then, and still does, as an essentially egotistical concept of his role in education. It was more about power than about educational vision. His role as a reformer trying to dominate and change the schools of the country has continued throughout the years.
In his writings, he usually focuses on the negative. There is something so basically flawed about the schools it must be weeded out. Yet, it is hard to pin down exactly what is wrong. Sometimes, along with Robert Coles and others, he seems to opine that there are so many youths who are alienated by the system. When I taught in Dedham High School in Massachusetts years ago, one teen declared that he was "an outlaw." He wanted to get a mobile home and a motorcycle and ride rootlessly around the country "like a rolling stone." Sometimes Sizer writes as though he wants to change the system in order not to lose youths like this one. Other times, he is concerned with the cynicism of the better students, who have learned to play the system to their advantage. They have learned to manipulate the system in order to "succeed," but a true ideal of excellence is missing from their value system, or even a true love of learning.
He is bothered by the bureaucracy, but it's not that there is just too much paperwork or too much micromanagement, or a lack of disciplinary follow through and guts in punishing the guilty. Rather, I often sense from reading Sizer's writings that the bureaucracy is a mindset he abhors. It is a mindset of mediocrity and of trying to manage or enclose an educational process that is more exciting and open-ended than is realized.
In short, he seems to feel for the past forty-plus years that education is not living up to what it could and should be. Yet, he never clearly articulates what it could and should be. Rather, he is inviting us, and all potential fellow reformers, to catch his vision that there is a dynamic and an excellence beyond what we now have, even if the parameters of that dynamic and that excellence cannot be fully enunciated. He's kind of an educated Rodney King.."if we could all just get together, then what a beautiful world it could be." But it ain't a beautiful world although there is beauty in it. A more healthy and robust philosophy is needed to adjust to the wickedness that is out there.
He does not call for implementation of a more moral world view as did Pestalozzi. He does not promote the adaptation of the individual to democracy as does Dewey. He does not promote radical freedom of the individual like the Summerhill crowd. He does not advocate integration like Martin Luther King, Jr. He does not challenge us to intensify the scientific application of psychology to learning as does Herbart. Nor, does he advocate the arts as a path to wholeness in the educational life of a growing human being like Rudolf Steiner. Since I studied with him in 1963, I do not see articulated positive goals, but only the sense that if one is smart enough and progressive enough then he or she will see how to reform and improve this or that school or school system, because the given is that they all need reform. His "new vision" really is no vision, but only the promise that if you work with him your schools will get better in all kinds of ways. They will be revitalized. In fact, if I were to give a rubric for his ideas, I would say they come under the heading of "revitalizing the schools." However, the rub is that the notion is vague and even mystical. It ultimately depends upon trusting him and those who agree with him. He has good points to make yet lacks overriding substance in terms of goals or purpose.
Lastly, it is worth noting that Sizer is not "above the fray." Though certain of his points might be considered acceptable to conservative or liberal theories of education, he is in the liberal camp. Why can't Johnny read? Answer: The schools are boring, have mediocrity as their standard, have untalented administrators and teachers, lack funding,
are mired in local values and premises that are invalid and provincial, and have arcane rules that inhibit rather than enhance educational practice. Almost every aspect of pedagogy, administration, testing, discipline, parent-school relations, curriculum, guidance, and legal structure is wrong. Why can't Johnny tell right from wrong? Answer: Pretty much the same as the answer for why Johnny can't read.
Ted Sizer sees very little that is good about education as it has evolved in America. His slant is leftward. His sense that the individual can only be fixed by reforming the whole is ill-conceived and based on many philosophical mis-assumptions.
His sense that the traditional classroom is a place of failed expectations and rampant denial is excessively negative. His hope for America based on his envisioned educational reforms is futile.

The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education.(Book review): An article from: The Historian

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The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education.(Book review): An article from: The Historian
Richard J. Altenbaugh
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 574 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education.(Book review)
Author: Richard J. Altenbaugh
Publication: The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 68 Issue: 1 Page: 165(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education

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The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education
Theodore R. Sizer
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OS3INY

Customer Reviews:

Convincing Indictment.......2006-04-28

Bruce Tap's, book may force the reader to rethink the benefits of the North's partisan political system. Historian Mark Neely has also questioned how partisanship benefited the war's prosecution.
The CCW was a highly partisan commission that investigated northern military failures and scandals. Tap exposes how the committee's leaders Ben Wade and Zachariah Chandler tried to purge the Union army of all conservative elements, believing that only antislavery Republicans could win the War. While the committee did help expose racial atrocities and minor corruption, the total lack of military knowledge on the CCW more often than not impeded the war's prosecution. Pressure for a general advance may have contributed to the disaster at Fredericksburg. It is telling that the committee's favorite generals seemed to have been Ben Butler, John C. Fremont, Joe Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, and John Pope. A Must read for all Civil War nuts.

Should be on the bookshelf.......2005-11-25

I enjoyed this even handed depiction of the Lincoln era and its behind the scene workings of the Committee on the Conduct of the War.

The Radical Republicans and the control they wielded actually impacted military decision making in some instances.

Tap brings to light the attitudes, so much different than today, of politicians and their views of the still "young" institution of West Point.

Tap reveals the treatment West Point Democratic Generals received in the Radically Repubican run Federal government.

A good addition to your bookshelf.

Interesting and very readable analysis........1998-09-01

The author covers the Joint Committee activities in detail and makes a convincing argument about their goals and actual accomplishments. Bruce Tap gets into many primary sources to paint a complete picture. However, the book is very readable and doesn't bog down in the details. It is a very important addition to Civil War historiography and closes a gap in the activities of Congress during this period.

A Penetrating Study and a cautionary tale........1998-08-28

In this penetrating study of the Joint Congressional Committee on the conduct of the war Bruce Tap shows us the danger of giving Politicians too much control over military affairs. The Committee's radical majority almost certainly played a role in persuading Abraham Lin- coln to turn the Civil War into a war for slave liberation, but at a terrible cost.The Committee had this bizarre idea that wars are won not by military professionalism but rather by superior ideology. Consequently the Committee harassed and discredited competent Generals who happened to be Democrats. At the same time they promoted the careers of incompetent Generals who expressed Abolitionist sentiments. Considering all this it is almost a miracle that the Union won the war. This book is a cautionary tale about what can happen when a divi- ded nation goes to war. Even if you are not a Civil War buff this book is well worth reading.

Over Lincoln's Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War.(Review) : An article from: Presidential Studies Quarterly

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Over Lincoln's Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War.(Review) : An article from: Presidential Studies Quarterly
Harold C. Relyea
Manufacturer: Center for the Study of the Presidency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Presidential Studies Quarterly, published by Center for the Study of the Presidency on June 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1227 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Over Lincoln's Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War.(Review)
Author: Harold C. Relyea
Publication: Presidential Studies Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1999
Publisher: Center for the Study of the Presidency
Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Page: 501

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

The British Slavery Abolition Act of 1834 provided a grant of Âœ20 million to compensate the owners of West Indian slaves for the loss of their human 'property.' In this first comparative analysis of the impact of the award on the colonies, Mary Butler focuses on Jamaica and Barbados, two of Britain's premier sugar islands.

The Economics of Emancipation examines the effect of compensated emancipation on colonial credit, landownership, plantation land values, and the broader spheres of international trade and finance. Butler also brings the role and status of women as creditors and plantation owners into focus for the first time. Through her analysis of rarely used chancery court records, attorneys' letters, and compensation returns, Butler underscores the fragility of the colonial economies of Jamaica and Barbados, illustrates the changing relationship between planters and merchants, and offers new insights into the social and political history of the West Indies and Britain.

Customer Reviews:

Applied plant biotechnology in the compact review format.......2004-05-24

This book about transgenic approaches in plant biotechnology was a great help for the preparation of my plant biochemistry final exam. It was really useful as a compilation of the recent status of semi- and fully transgenic applications in plants which combines the necessary basics with the outcomes and perspectives. A compact treatise like this one is not easy to find. The book would be very suitable both for applied plant sciences classes and those in bio-medical ethics. - I certainly have to recommend this title to students for the preparation of examinations in the mentioned level of advanced graduate studies.
The authors' statement in the preface is "in this book, we shall put man in the forefront." After a brief discussion about plant molecular genetics and a short introduction to immunology, the text directs towards a detailed discussion about how antibodies, vaccines, and other therapeutic compounds for human diseases can be manufactured by transgenic plants. Afterwards, the focus lies on risk management, safety in applications, and public acceptance issues. The book gives an important direction regarding applied plant genetics, updated in 2001.

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