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by William Heyer Architect

Recommended Reading on Sacred Architecture

William Heyer’s reading list on sacred architecture, prepared for the Catholic Art Institute’s 2026 conference in Washington, DC on 18 and 19 September.

The list runs from Vitruvius, Alberti and Abbot Suger to Guardini, Couturier and Thomas Gordon Smith, with the Church’s own documents on art and architecture alongside, in alphabetical order. Where a text is freely available online, the entry links straight to it; the catalogue links find a copy in a library near you. The chapters named beneath an entry are the passages Bill suggests beginning with.

  1. Genesis

    New American Bible, Revised Edition, at the USCCB

    SuggestedChapters 1–2

    Read at the USCCBChapter 2

  2. Exodus

    New American Bible, Revised Edition, at the USCCB

    SuggestedChapters 25–27Chapters 35–40

    Read at the USCCBChapters 35–40

  3. 1 Kings

    New American Bible, Revised Edition, at the USCCB

    SuggestedChapters 5–6

    Sometimes cited as 3 Kings.

    Read at the USCCBChapter 6

  4. 2 Chronicles

    New American Bible, Revised Edition, at the USCCB

    SuggestedChapters 3–5

    Read at the USCCB

  5. Ezekiel

    New American Bible, Revised Edition, at the USCCB

    SuggestedChapters 40–43

    Read at the USCCB

  6. John

    New American Bible, Revised Edition, at the USCCB

    SuggestedChapter 2:19–21

    Read at the USCCB

  7. Revelation

    New American Bible, Revised Edition, at the USCCB

    SuggestedChapters 21–22

    Read at the USCCBChapter 22

  8. The Anatomy of Sacred Art: Presence, Witness, and Transcendence

    Anthony Visco

    Sacred Architecture, vol. 8 (2003)

    Read the essayIssue PDF

  9. The Anatomy of Sacred Art: Ad Quid Venisti? Quo Vadiums?

    Anthony Visco

    Sacred Architecture, vol. 9 (2004)

    Read the essayIssue PDF

  10. Architecture and Meaning on the Athenian Acropolis

    Robin Francis Rhodes

    Cambridge University Press, 1995

    SuggestedIntroduction

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780521469814

  11. Architecture for Worship

    E. A. Sövik

    Augsburg Publishing House, 1973

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

    ISBN 9780806613208

  12. Architecture: The Natural and the Manmade

    Vincent Scully

    St. Martin’s Press, 1991

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

    ISBN 9780312062927

  13. Beauty: What It Is and Why It Matters

    John-Mark L. Miravalle

    Sophia Institute Press, 2019

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9781622827121

  14. Beyond Modernity: Reflections of a Post-Modern Catholic

    George William Rutler

    Ignatius Press, 1987

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780898701357

  15. Building from Belief

    Michael E. DeSanctis

    Liturgical Press, 2002

    SuggestedComing to Terms with Modern DesignLet’s Stop Renovating Church Buildings (And Start Renovating the Church)The Quest for ‘Noble Simplicity’

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780814627556

  16. Built of Living Stones: Art, Architecture, and Worship

    United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

    2000

    Read the documentWorldCatOpen Library

    ISBN 9781574554083

  17. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Two: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery

    Catholic Church

    Second edition, 1997

    SuggestedPart Two (§1066 ff.)

    Read at the Vatican

  18. Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy

    Denis R. McNamara

    Hillenbrand Books, 2009

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9781595250278

  19. Catholic Liturgy: Its Fundamental Principles

    Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B.

    Benziger Brothers, 1924; reprinted by Romanitas Press

    SuggestedPrefaceChapter I

    Internet ArchiveRomanitas Press

  20. Church Building and Furnishing: The Church’s Way

    J. B. O’Connell

    A Study in Liturgical Law; Liturgical Studies, vol. 2, University of Notre Dame Press, 1955

    Open LibraryInternet ArchiveLibrary of Congress

  21. The Church Building as a Sacred Place: Beauty, Transcendence, and the Eternal

    Duncan G. Stroik

    Hillenbrand Books, 2012

    Duncan G. Stroik ArchitectWorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryIntroduction (PDF)Chapter 1 (PDF)

    ISBN 9781595250377

  22. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

    Robert Venturi

    The Museum of Modern Art, 2nd edition

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780870702822

  23. The Concept of Beauty in St. Thomas Aquinas

    G. B. Phelan

    In Aspects of the New Scholastic Philosophy, ed. Charles A. Hart, Benziger Brothers, 1932

    Internet Archive

  24. De Ordine

    St Augustine

    English: On Order, St. Augustine’s Cassiciacum Dialogues, vol. 3, translated by Michael P. Foley, Yale University Press, 2019

    SuggestedChapters 11 & 15–19

    Original textWorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryDOI

    ISBN 9780300238532

  25. De Tribus Diebus (On the Three Days)

    Hugh of St Victor

    In Trinity and Creation, Victorine Texts in Translation, vol. 1, edited by Boyd Taylor Coolman and Dale M. Coulter, New City Press, 2011

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet ArchiveBrepols edition

    ISBN 9781565483736

  26. Decree of the Holy, Great, Ecumenical Synod, the Second of Nice

    Second Council of Nicaea, 787

    Translated by Henry R. Percival, The Seven Ecumenical Councils, 1900

    Read at FordhamInternet Archive

  27. The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods

    Vincent Scully

    Yale University Press, revised edition, 1979

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

    ISBN 9780300023978

  28. Ecclesia de Eucharistia

    Pope John Paul II

    Encyclical, 17 April 2003

    Read at the Vatican

  29. Enchiridion of Church Laws Governing Sacred Architecture

  30. An Essay on Architecture

    Marc-Antoine Laugier

    Hennessey & Ingalls

    SuggestedIntroductionGeneral Principles of ArchitectureThe Column

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780912158921

  31. Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism

    Matei Calinescu

    Duke University Press, 1987

    SuggestedComparing the Moderns to the AncientsBaudelaire and the Paradoxes of Aesthetic Modernity

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780822307679

  32. The Function of Art

    Pope Pius XII

    Address to artists, 8 April 1952

    Read at Papal Encyclicals Online

  33. God’s House is Our House

    Richard S. Vosko

    Liturgical Press, 2006

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780814630143

  34. Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism

    Erwin Panofsky

    Meridian Books

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780529020925

  35. Heavenly Mansions and Other Essays on Architecture

    John Summerson

    W. W. Norton, 1998

    SuggestedAntitheses of the QuattrocentoViollet-le-Duc and the Rational Point of View

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

    ISBN 9780393318579

  36. A History of Western Architecture

    David Watkin, revised by Owen Hopkins

    Seventh edition, Laurence King, 2023

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9781529420302

  37. The Idea of a Modern Architecture in the Nineteenth Century

    William J. R. Curtis

    In Modern Architecture Since 1900, Phaidon, 3rd edition, 1996

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780714833569

  38. Instructiones Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae, 1577

    St Charles Borromeo

    English translation by Evelyn Carole Voelker

    Read the translationInternet Archive

  39. John of Damascus: Apologia Against Those Who Decry Holy Images, c. 730

    St John of Damascus

    Fordham Medieval Sourcebook, in three parts

    Read at FordhamIn Defense of Icons (excerpt)

  40. Lamentabili Sane

    Pope St Pius X

    Decree of the Holy Office, 3 July 1907

    Read at Papal Encyclicals Online

  41. Letter to Artists

    Pope John Paul II

    4 April 1999

    Read at the Vatican

  42. The Liturgical Altar

    Geoffrey Webb

    Reprinted by Romanitas Press

    SuggestedChapters 1–2

    Romanitas PressLatin Mass SocietyAngelus Press

  43. Liturgical Worship

    Joseph A. Jungmann, S.J.

    Frederick Pustet, 1941

    SuggestedWhat is the Liturgy?Two Tendencies

    Internet Archive

  44. Liturgy and Architecture

    Louis Bouyer

    University of Notre Dame Press, 1967

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

    ISBN 9780268001599

  45. Madness and Modernism

    Louis Sass

    Oxford University Press, revised edition, 2017

    SuggestedIntroductionThe Stimmung in Schizophrenia

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryOxford University Press

    ISBN 9780198779292

  46. Mediator Dei

    Pope Pius XII

    Encyclical, 20 November 1947

    SuggestedPart IPart IV

    Read at the Vatican

  47. Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium

    Pope John Paul II

    Rizzoli, 2005

    SuggestedThe Maternal Memory of the Church

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

    ISBN 9780847827619

  48. Modern Church Building: Problems of Sacred Space

    Raymond F. Pavia

    Liturgical Arts, vol. 31, no. 3 (1963), p. 74

  49. Modern Churches of the World

    Robert Maguire & Keith Murray

    Studio Vista, 1965

    Google BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

  50. Modern Dwarfs on the Shoulders of Ancient Giants

    Matei Calinescu

    In Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism, Duke University Press, 1987

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780822307679

  51. The Nature of Religious Art

    Abbot Ildefons Herwegen, O.S.B.

    Liturgical Arts, vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1931), pp. 3–6

    Read the issue

  52. A New Architecture to Honor the Church’s Vision and Legacy

    Thomas Gordon Smith

    Catholic Dossier, 1997; reprinted in Adoremus Bulletin, November 1997

    Read at Adoremus

  53. Of a Church and Its Parts

    William Durandus

    Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, Book I, translated by J. M. Neale and Benjamin Webb

    Read at GutenbergInternet Archive

  54. On Architecture

    Vitruvius

    Vitruvius on Architecture, edited and illustrated by Thomas Gordon Smith, The Monacelli Press, 2003

    SuggestedBook I, Chapters II & VIIBook III, Chapter IBook IV, Chapters V & IX

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet ArchiveFree text (Morgan, 1914)

    ISBN 9781580931274

  55. On Divine Names

    Dionysius the Areopagite

    Translated by C. E. Rolt, 1920

    SuggestedSections I, IV, V & VII

    Read at CCEL

  56. On the Art of Building in Ten Books

    Leon Battista Alberti

    Translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach and Robert Tavernor, MIT Press, 1991

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780262510608

  57. On the Divine Liturgy

    St Germanus of Constantinople

    Translated by Paul Meyendorff, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984

    Internet Archive

  58. The Painter of Modern Life

    Charles Baudelaire

    In The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays, translated by Jonathan Mayne, Phaidon

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780714833651

  59. Pastoral Statement of U.S. Catholic Bishops on Persons with Disabilities

    United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

    1978

    Read at the USCCB

  60. Sacred Art

    Marie-Alain Couturier, O.P.

    Selections; University of Texas Press, 1989

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

    ISBN 9780292776395

  61. The Church Incarnate

    Rudolf Schwarz

    Selections; translated by Cynthia Harris, Henry Regnery, 1958

    Open LibraryInternet Archive

  62. Speaking of Liturgical Architecture

    H. A. Reinhold

    University of Notre Dame, 1952

    Google BooksOpen Library

  63. The Spirit of the Liturgy

    Romano Guardini

    Crossroad, 1998

    SuggestedThe Primacy of the Logos over the Ethos

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryInternet Archive

    ISBN 9780824517779

  64. The Spirit of the Liturgy

    Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

    Translated by John Saward, Ignatius Press, 2000

    Internet ArchiveWorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780898707847

  65. Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis

    Abbot Suger, edited by Erwin Panofsky

    Princeton University Press, 2nd edition, 1979

    SuggestedIntroduction

    Suger’s own account is also free at the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen LibraryDOI

    ISBN 9780691003146

  66. Stewards of the Tradition: Fifty Years After Sacrosanctum Concilium

    USCCB Committee on Divine Worship

    2013

    Read the statement

  67. The Substance of Gothic

    Ralph Adams Cram

    Marshall Jones Company, 1917

    SuggestedLecture I: The Quarry of Antiquity

    Read at the Internet ArchiveOpen Library

  68. Towards a New Architecture

    Le Corbusier

    Translated by Frederick Etchells; Dover, 1986

    WorldCatGoogle BooksOpen Library

    ISBN 9780486250236

  69. Tradition and the Individual Talent

    T. S. Eliot

    In The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, 1920

    Read at BartlebyInternet ArchiveProject Gutenberg

  70. The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture

    A. W. N. Pugin

    John Weale, 1841

    Read at the Internet ArchiveOpen Library

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