Architecture in Communion: Implementing the Second Vatican Council through Liturgy and Architecture
By Steven J. Schloeder
San Francisco, Ignatius Press 1998

Architecture in Communion is an indispensable book for parishes looking to build new or to renovate their existing church. It is written to serve as a common bridge between architects, pastors, and building committee members so that everyone has the tools and understanding needed to ensure a thoroughly successful and responsible Catholic church building.

"This vision, then, is the heart and purpose of this book: to find appropriate arrangements and considerations for church building that are infused with the true spirit of the Second Vatican Council. Our goal is to enliven the parish community-which is the true Church built of living stones in Christ-with a material church building designed to serve and further the primary vocation to become a community of love, which must mean a people of sacrifice and redemption."

          from the Introduction, Architecture in Communion, pp. 11-12.

"Steven Schloeder's visionary yet practical study shows how the liturgy can have a physical setting worthy of itself in a space but speaks of eternity. I would like every church architect, artist, and pastor to possess a copy of this book."

                                                                 Rev. Aidan Nichols OP

"Everyone involved in the building or restoration of churches should read Architecture in Communion."

        Richard John Neuhaus in First Things, (June / July 2002): p. 73.

What Happened to Church Architecture?
By Steven J Schloeder
Second Spring in Catholic World Report, March 1995.
©1995 Catholic World Report and Steven Schloeder

This groundbreaking article sparked the debate and set the terms for subsequent discussions regarding the future of authentic Catholic architecture, and first proposed a third way between the banality of modernist church architecture and the reactionary regression to historical stylism.

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Heaven Wedded to Earth: Thinking About Sacramental Architecture
By Steven J Schloeder
Ministery and Liturgy 34.4 (May 2007)
©2007 Resource Publications and Steven Schloeder

The Catholic understanding of the church building as a "sacramental" is intended to assist us in our participation of the heavenly reality of the Mass. The historical expressions of this -- the various "styles" of architecture -- are founded on primary human experiences which also form the basis for the scriptural metaphors of the Church. Today as we seek to recover authentically Catholic architecture, these ideas can continue both to inspire contemporary architects and to move the hearts and minds of the faithful, responding to the growing desire to once again build churches that move beyond the functional, beyond the stylistic, to a truly sacramental architecture.

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Sacramental Architecture: Body, Temple, City
By Steven J Schloeder
Faith and Form 36.3 (Fall 2003)
©2003 Faith and Form and Steven Schloeder

A concise explanation of Schloeder's theory of "sacramental architecture" as an antidote to the functionalism of the 20th century that spawned so many meaningless, ugly, and strange Catholic churches.

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The Church that Parishioners Built
By Karen Walker
Saint Anthony Messenger (November 2003)
©2003 Saint Anthony Messenger and Karen Walker

Karen Walker's journalistic investigation into how a small agrarian community in rural Oklahoma built a masterpiece of Catholic architecture, and how through helping to build the material building they built a stronger community of fellowship, prayer, and service. The decision to build a new church provided an extraordinary opportunity to build community and friendships, as well as creating a new spiritual home that helps the parishioners understand the traditions of their faith.

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A Return to Humane Architecture
by Steven Schloeder
from The Intercollegiate Review (Fall 1998)
©1998 Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Steven Schloeder

Schloeder argues that the current trends toward architectural deconstruction are built on faulty anthropology, and that the recovery of a truly humane architecture requires first the recovery of the dignity of the human person.

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Church Building:
St Therese Church, Collinsville OK
By Karen Walker
Church Building 74 (March - April 2002).
©2003 Gabriel Communication, LTD and Karen Walker

In depth review of the Parish Church and Diocesan Shrine of Saint Therese in Collinsville, OK, from a major English language journal of ecclesiastical architecture.

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Faith and Form:
Parish Church and Diocesan Shrine of St. Therese, Collinsville OK
Faith and Form (Nov 2003)
©2003 Faith and Form and Steven Schloeder

Short review of the new church in Collinsville OK, from the AIA journal of the Interfaith Forum of Religion, Art, and Architecture.

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Back to the Drawing Board: Rethinking Church Architecture
By Steven Schloeder
Crisis 18.2 (February 2000)
©1999 The Morley Institute and Steven Schloeder

As the US Bishops worked to redraft Built of Living Stones to replace the problematic 1978 Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, this timely article sought to supply the US Bishops with the proper architectural principles from which to construct an adequate and authentic Catholic theory of sacred architecture.

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If this be ordinary… Review of Geometry of Love by Margaret Visser
By Steven Schloeder
The University Bookman 42.2 (Summer 2002)
©2002 The University Bookman and Steven Schloeder

Book review of Margaret Visser's Geometry of Love: Space, time, mystery, and meaning in an ordinary church (New York: North Point Press 2000).

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