After World War II, America's religious denominations spent billions on church architecture as they spread into the suburbs. In this richly illustrated history of midcentury modern churches in the Midwest, Gretchen Buggeln shows how architects and suburban congregations joined forces to work out a vision of how modernist churches might help reinvigorate Protestant worship and community. The result is a fascinating new perspective on postwar architecture, religion, and society. Drawing on the architectural record, church archives, and oral histories, The Suburban Church focuses on collaborations between architects Edward D. Dart, Edward A. Soevik, Charles E. Stade, and seventy-five congregations. By telling the stories behind their modernist churches, the book describes how the buildings both reflected and shaped developments in postwar religion-its ecumenism, optimism, and liturgical innovation, as well as its fears about staying relevant during a time of vast cultural, social, and demographic change. While many scholars have characterized these congregations as "country club" churches, The Suburban Church argues that most were earnest, well-intentioned religious communities caught between the desire to serve God and the demands of a suburban milieu in which serving middle-class families required most of their material and spiritual resources.

This latest book by Tarquin Blake documents eighty abandoned Church of Ireland churches, preserving a record of fragile religious ruins. Their history, dating back to early Christianity in Ireland, paints a stark portrait of a Protestant aristocracy and a Catholic majority. Under the 1801 Act of Union, the Church of Ireland was united with the Church of England. Following this about GBP1 million (100 million in today's money) was spent building over 700 Protestant churches. The Church of Ireland was the Established Church and Protestantism the official religion. Most Irish resented the Church of Ireland, a minority church controlled by Englishmen, unsympathetic and friends of the landlords. As Protestant congregations declined in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries an attempt was made to keep churches open by uniting parishes. Eventually non-existent congregations forced closure of many churches. Valuables were removed, churches deconsecrated and abandoned. Blake's haunting images of crumbling ruins and history of the churches tell another fascinating story of troubled times.

Abbeys and Priories of Medieval Wales is the first comprehensive, illustrated guide to the religious houses of Wales from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. It offers a thorough introduction to the history of the monastic orders in Wales (the Benedictines, Cluniacs, Augustinians, Premonstratensians, Cistercians, the military orders and the friars), and to life inside medieval Welsh monasteries and nunneries, in addition to providing the histories of almost sixty communities of religious men and women, with descriptions of the standing remains of their buildings. As well as a being a scholarly book, a number of maps, ground plans and practical information make this an indispensable guide for visitors to Wales's monastic heritage.

Winner of the 2006 Shimada Prize from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies, Kyoto, Japan Winner of the 2006 John Whitney Hall Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies Chikubushima, a sacred island north of the ancient capital of Kyoto, attracted the attention of Japan's rulers in the Momoyama period (1568-1615) and became a repository of their art, including a lavishly decorated building dedicated to the worship of Benzaiten. In this meticulous and lucid study, Andrew Watsky keenly illustrates how private belief and political ambition influenced artistic production at the intersection of institutional Buddhism and Shinto during this tumultuous period of rapid and radical political, social, and aesthetic changes. He offers substantial conclusions not only about this specific site, but also, more broadly, about the nature of art production in Japan and how perceptions of the sacred shaped the concerns and actions of the secular rulers. The patrons of the island included the dominant political figures of the time: the late sixteenth-century ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) who supported numerous projects at the apogee of his power and his heir Hideyori (1593-1615), as well as their rival and eventual successor to national hegemony, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616). After Hideyoshi's death, the Toyotomi clan struggled to retain their power and sought new opportunities to position themselves as chief conduits of divine protection and beneficence for the realm. They enacted and signified this role by zealous, indefatigable sponsorship of sacred architecture and its ornament, icons, and rituals. In the early seventeenth century, the Toyotomi clan sponsored a major refurbishing of the Benzaiten Hall on Chikubushima, transporting a highly ornamented structure from Kyoto to be installed as its core. Enveloped in polychrome paintings by the Kano workshop (the leading painting studio of the period), black-and-gold lacquer, gilt metalwork, and pictorial relief wood carvings, this core is the most complete ensemble of ornament and architecture surviving from the Momoyama period. Watsky has had unique access to the island, and many of the images included here have not previously been published.

Jeanne Halgren Kilde's survey of church architecture is unlike any other. Her main concern is not the buildings themselves, but rather the dynamic character of Christianity and how church buildings shape and influence the religion. Kilde argues that a primary function of church buildings is to represent and reify three different types of power: divine power, or ideas about God; personal empowerment as manifested in the individual's perceived relationship to the divine; and social power, meaning the relationships between groups such as clergy and laity. Each type intersects with notions of Christian creed, cult, and code, and is represented spatially and materially in church buildings.
Kilde explores these categories chronologically, from the early church to the twentieth century. She considers the form, organization, and use of worship rooms; the location of churches; and the interaction between churches and the wider culture.
Church buildings have been integral to Christianity, and Kilde's important study sheds new light on the way they impact all aspects of the religion. Neither mere witnesses to transformations of religious thought or nor simple backgrounds for religious practice, church buildings are, in Kilde's view, dynamic participants in religious change and goldmines of information on Christianity itself.

Cambridgeshire is a large and diverse county, and this is reflected in its churches. In the south, chalk provided flints for even the grandest of churches. The Fens in the north and east had no building materials of their own, so limestone was transported from further north and may best be seen in those churches that were owned or established by monastic houses. In the former county of Huntingdonshire limestone dominates, and bricks made from the local clays make an early appearance. In this book author John E. Vigar presents a selection of the most interesting churches from across the county, including the former counties of the Isle of Ely, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough, covering every period and type of church, from simple Saxo-Norman churches such as Hauxton, to late medieval churches where money was plentiful such as Whittlesey. Former monastic houses are represented by March and Ramsey, a rare seventeenth-century church at Guyhirn and one of the most important nineteenth-century churches in England at Cambridge All Saints, as well as many other ecclesiastical gems in the county. This fascinating picture of an important part of the history of Cambridgeshire over the centuries will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting this attractive county in England.

Oxfordshire, once part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, has always been a wealthy county. Its landscapes vary from the chalk and beechwood Chiltern Hills in the south to the limestone uplands of the Cotswolds in the north-west, which give very fine building stone. The land supports arable and sheep farming, and is watered by the River Thames and its many tributaries. All this is reflected in the variety of its church buildings, architecture that is not necessarily grand but is exceptionally beautiful and atmospheric. This book looks at a small, representative selection of buildings and their contents, some proudly in towns, others settled into their rural landscapes. Since church buildings were almost always modified over the centuries, any that date from the Middle Ages are apt to contain features from several periods. Some have been chosen because they still show their Anglo-Saxon origins. Some are here for their surviving wall paintings, some for remarkable tombs. Work of exceptional Gothic Revival architects is included, as are one or two twentieth-century buildings. Nonconformists are represented by the eighteenth-century Baptist Chapel at Cote and the contemporary Quaker Meeting House at Burford. Illustrated throughout, Churches of Oxfordshire will be of interest to local historians, residents and visitors to the county.

Originally published in 1909, this book contains a guide in English and French to the sculptures of Chartres Cathedral. The text is illustrated with over one hundred photographic plates of the sculptures, with an explanation for each in both languages on the facing page. Some of the photographs included are among the earliest published examples of telephotography. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in French medieval sculpture, the cathedral at Chartres or the history of photography.

Edinburgh was founded as a Royal Burgh by King David I in the early 12th century though there had been a settlement on what became the castle rock for centuries before that. King David is also thought to be responsible for the city's oldest building, a chapel built in honour of his mother, Queen Margaret, who was later declared a saint. Churches of Edinburgh looks at the city's churches from this earliest surviving example to the award-winning Chapel of Saint Albert the Great opened some 900 years later, telling their stories, discussing their architecture and pointing out their notable features as well as outlining the important part that some of Edinburgh's churches have played in major events in Scottish history such as the Reformation or the National Covenant. The churches featured include, among many others, the ruined 13th century Abbey that was once a meeting place for the Scottish Parliament, the church that retains a seat for Queen Victoria and the one that has its own canal boat. There is also the story of the fifteenth century church that was demolished in 1848 but was later partially rebuilt elsewhere and that of the important artworks that lie hidden beneath the paintwork of another city church. This fascinating picture of an important part of the history of Edinburgh and Scotland over the centuries will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting Scotland's capital city.

This volume covers some of the finest landscape and architecture in southern England, much of it set within the South Downs National Park. The county's small towns and villages feature a pleasing mix of stone, timber, and brick houses of every period. Among numerous atmospheric country houses are the Tudor ruins of Cowdray, the Elizabethan mansion at Parham, and the French-inspired Petworth in its great park, famously captured in Turner's paintings. On the grandest scale is the mighty Arundel Castle, seat of the Duke of Norfolk, while Chichester, the only city in West Sussex, boasts one of the country's most important 12th-century cathedrals. Among many major ecclesiastical and educational establishments built in the 19th century, none is more impressive than Lancing College set high above the coast. New research accompanies 130 specially commissioned color photographs in this authoritative and expert guide.

The ancient churches and cathedrals of England's towns and countryside are among the glories of our national heritage, the church spire one of the quintessential features of the landscape. Yet how were our ancestors able to construct these often substantial edifices without the benefit of modern techniques? How did medieval masons plan, design and oversee their construction? What methods of construction were used to achieve the magnificent church spires and ceilings that we marvel at today? Geoffrey R. Sharpe brings more that forty years of experience of managing and caring for historic buildings to provide a unique guide to the design and construction of our historic churches and cathedrals. Building a cathedral could require a workforce of 300 to 400 men, the quarrying of 80,000 tons of stone and involve the felling of 1500 trees. How all this was organized, managed and realized is explained in this compelling volume. The author deals with all aspects - from original planning and preparation, to the final construction and decoration. The layout and choice of materials, the construction of the foundations, walls and ceilings, the work of the highly skilled medieval masons, blacksmiths and carpenters are all described and explained. Individual aspects of church architecture such as corbels, tracery and windows, as well as important features of church interiors such as galleries, burial vaults and screens are included. And in a final chapter the author shows the reader how to assess the history and development of a church from the constructional and architectural clues contained within its features. The result is a work that will add a whole new dimension to understanding English church building and architecture.

Includes 100 illustrations of magnificent and historic synagogues on New York's Lower East Side.
It has often been said that nowhere in the United States can one find a greater collection of magnificent and historic synagogues than on New York's Lower East Side. As the ultimate destination for millions of immigrant eastern European Jews during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became the new homeland and hoped-for goldene medinah (promised land) for immigrants fleeing persecution, poverty, and oppression, while struggling to live a new and productive life. Yet to many visitors and students today these synagogues are shrouded in mystery, as
documentary information on them tends to be dispersed and difficult to find.
With The Synagogues of New York's Lower East Side, Gerard R. Wolfe fills that void, giving readers unparalleled access to the story of how the Jewish community took root on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Using archival photographs taken by Jo Renee Fine and contemporary shots taken by Norman Borden alongside his text,
Wolfe focuses on the synagogues built or acquired by eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants during the great era of mass immigration, painting vivid portraits of the individual congregations and the new and vital culture that was emerging. For many, the Lower East Side became the portal to America and the stepping-stone to
a new and better life. Today, the synagogues in which these immigrants worshiped remain as a poignant visual reminder of what had become the largest Jewish community in the world.
Originally published in 1978, The Synagogues of New York's Lower East Side became the authoritative study of the subject. Now completely revised and updated with new text, photographs, and maps, along with an invaluable glossary, Wolfe's book is an essential and accessible source for those who want to understand the
varied and rich history of New York's Lower East Side and its Jewish population. Its readable and illuminating view into the diversity of synagogues--large and small, past and present--and their people makes this book ideal for teachers, students, museum educators, and general readers alike.

In various parts of the Islamic world over the past decades virulent attacks have targeted Islamic funeral and sacral architecture. Rather than being random acts of vandalism, these are associated with the idea of performing one's religious duty as attested to in the Salafi/Wahhabi tradition and texts. Graves, shrines and tombs are regarded by some Muslims as having the potential to tempt a believer to polytheism. Hence the duty to level the graves to the ground (taswiyat al-qubur). In illuminating the ideology behind these acts, this book explains the current destruction of graves in the Islamic world and traces the ideological sources of iconoclasm in their historical perspective, from medieval theological and legal debates to contemporary Islamist movements including ISIS.

Less than ten years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the new religion of Islam arrived in Egypt with the army of Amr ibn al-As in AD 641. Amr immediately established his capital at al-Fustat, just south of modern Cairo, and there he built Africa's first mosque, one still in regular use today. Since then, governors, caliphs, sultans, amirs, beys, pashas, among others, have built mosques, madrasas, and mausoleums throughout Egypt in a changing sequence of Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ottoman, and modern styles. In this fully color-illustrated, large-format volume, a leading historian of Islamic art and culture celebrates the great variety of Egypt's mosques and related religious buildings, from the early congregational mosques, through the medieval mausoleum-madrasas, to the neighborhood mosques of the Ottoman and modern periods. With outstanding architectural photography and authoritative analytical texts, this book will be valued as the finest on the subject by scholars and general readers alike.

Stow Church in Lincolnshire is one of the most interesting Anglo-Saxon Churches in England. These documents record its restoration in the mid-nineteenth century.

The Dome of the Rock was built in 692 C.E. under the patronage of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. It enshrines the Sacred Rock, literally the irregular highest tip of Mount Moriah, one of the several ridges around which the city of Jerusalem began to develop as early as five thousand years ago. The structure commemorates the Prophet Muhammad's (ca. 570-632) celebrated Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and his Ascension through the heavens to visit God, as told in the Koran and the Traditions. As such, the mosque has reflected and represented Islam during most of its history, but it is also associated with sacred events in the lives of Christ, the Virgin, and Christian saints as well as with a host of Jewish prophets, traditions, and memories. Today the Dome of the Rock is used primarily for women's congregational prayer, private prayer, and religious instruction, and as a place of pilgrimage for people of all faiths. This volume is the most detailed and complete visual documentation published to date of this profound monument. Stunning color photography explores the exterior and luxurious interior, illuminated by delicate light from stained glass windows and decorated with veined marble, mosaics, oriental carpets, and porphyry columns. The introduction, by one of today's most esteemed Islamic scholars, explores the history, art, architecture, and cultural and religious significance of the building. The book also includes transcriptions of the earliest-known Koranic script, inscribed on the building's octagonal arcades, historical travelers' accounts of the Dome, maps and drawings, a bibliography and glossary, and an index.

A comprehensive guide to the individual churches, catacombs, embellishments and artefacts of Early Christian Rome. The author describes precisely where the extant features are situated and provides details on what can be seen. The ground plans of each site studies allows the reader to compare the proportions of each church with another From the 1st-century visits of the Apostles Peter and Paul to the end of the 9th-century Carolingian Renaissance, the book also includes dates of emperors and popes, and important historical events relating to this period in Rome. A historical introduction places the monuments in the context of the Early Christian period and its development in Rome.

Canterbury Cathedral possesses a unique marble mosaic pavement, dating from the early 12th century, which has long intrigued scholars and been the subject of speculation and debate. It forms part of the floor of the Trinity chapel, adjacent to the site where the shrine of St Thomas Becket stood, prior to the Reformation. Since the mosaic is older than the chapel itself and partly destroyed a pavement of figurative roundels, laid c.1215, it must have been moved here from elsewhere in the cathedral. This volume explores the history and archaeology of the Trinity chapel, the pavement and the physical remains of the cult of Becket, based largely on hitherto unrecorded and unpublished evidence. In the early 12th century, Archbishop Anselm rebuilt the eastern arm of the cathedral, introducing architectural elements from his native Italy, and these included a magnificent mosaic pavement, composed of the most expensive marbles, which lay in front of the high altar. In 1170, Archbishop Becket was murdered in the cathedral, and his body rested overnight on the pavement before being buried in the crypt. Thomas was immediately revered as a martyr, and in 1173 was canonised by the pope; a simple shrine was erected over his tomb. In the following year, a fire (arson) destroyed the eastern arm of the cathedral, precipitating the construction of the present Trinity and Corona chapels, wherein St Thomas’s remains were enshrined. After decades of delay and political strife, the enshrinement took place in 1220, in the presence of Henry III. The shrine comprised a great marble table, supported on six clusters of columns. On top of the table was a marble sarcophagus containing the saint’s body in an iron-bound timber coffin, over which stood the sumptuous feretory, a gabled timber ‘roof’, plated with sheets of gold and adorned with jewels. East of the shrine lies the small Corona chapel in which a fragment of Becket’s skull was separately encased in a ‘head-shrine’, and to the west a large area was paved with forty-eight figurative stone roundels, created by French artisans. All around, stained-glass windows display the early miracles of Becket. The layout of the Trinity chapel underwent transmutations, first around 1230, when the mosaic pavement was taken up from the old presbytery, reduced in size and relaid in front of Becket’s shrine, where is it today. Second, the chapel was reordered in c. 1290, when the podium carrying the shrine was enlarged and the paving around it reconfigured. Medieval tombs were now being installed in the chapels, including those of the Black Prince and Henry IV. The end came in 1538, when Henry VIII ordered the thorough destruction of Becket’s shrines, but a great deal of archaeological evidence remained in the floors, walls and a few surviving fragments of the shrines, all now recorded and discussed in this beautifully illustrated volume for the first time.

In the aftermath of the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage pursued by Islamist groups like ISIS, many observers have erroneously come to associate Islamic doctrine and practice with such acts. This book explores the diverse ways Muslims have engaged with the material legacies of ancient and pre-Islamic societies, as well as how Islam's own heritage has been framed and experienced over time. This is a new collection of articles previously available in issues of the International Journal of Islamic Architecture. The tragically familiar spectacles of cultural heritage destruction performed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq are frequently presented as barbaric, baffling, and far outside the bounds of what are imagined to be normative, 'civilized' uses of the past. Often superficially explained as an attempt to stamp out idolatry or as a fundamentalist desire to revive and enforce a return to a purified monotheism, analysis of these spectacles of heritage violence posits two things: that there is, fact, an 'Islamic' manner of imagining the past - its architectural manifestations, its traces and localities - and that actions carried out at these localities, whether constructive or destructive, have moral or ethical consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In this reading, the iconoclastic actions of ISIS and similar groups, for example the Taliban or the Wahhabi monarchy in Saudi Arabia, are represented as one, albeit extreme, manifestation of an assumedly pervasive and historically on-going Islamic antipathy toward images and pre-contemporary holy localities in particular, and, more broadly, toward the idea of heritage and the uses to which it has been put by modern nationalism. But long before the emergence of ISIS and other so-called Islamist iconoclasts, and perhaps as early as the rise of Islam itself, Muslims imagined Islamic and pre-Islamic antiquity and its localities in myriad ways: as sites of memory, spaces of healing, or places imbued with didactic, historical, and moral power. Ancient statuary were deployed as talismans, paintings were interpreted to foretell and reify the coming of Islam, and temples of ancient gods and churches devoted to holy saints were converted into mosques in ways that preserved their original meaning and, sometimes, even their architectural ornament and fabric. Often, such localities were valued simply as places that elicited a sense of awe and wonder, or of reflection on the present relevance of history and the greatness of past empires, a theme so prevalent it created distinct genres of Arabic and Persian literature (aja'ib, fada'il). Sites like Ctesiphon, the ancient capital of the Zoroastrian Sasanians, or the Temple Mount, where the Jewish temple had stood, were embraced by early companions of the Prophet Muhammad and incorporated into Islamic notions of the self. Furthermore, various Islamic interpretive communities as well as Jews and Christians often shared holy places and had similar haptic, sensorial, and ritual connections that enabled them to imagine place in similar ways. These engagements were often more dynamic and purposeful than conventional scholarly notions of 'influence' and 'transmission' can account for. And yet, Muslims also sometimes destroyed ancient places or powerfully reimagined them to serve their own purposes, as for example in the aftermath of the Crusader presence in the Holy Land or in the destruction, reuse and rebuilding of ancient Buddhist and Hindu sites in the Eastern Islamic lands and South Asia. This volume presents thirteen essays by leading scholars that address the issue of Islamic interest in the material past of the ancient and Islamic world, with essays examining attitudes about antiquarianism in the Islamic world from medieval times to the present. Main readership will be among scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, researchers, educators and academic libraries working or studying in the fields of the ancient world, antiquities, heritage and the Islamic world.

This book offers a novel perspective on one of the most important monuments of French Gothic architecture, the Sainte-Chapelle, constructed in Paris by King Louis IX of France between 1239 and 1248 especially to hold and to celebrate Christ's Crown of Thorns. Meredith Cohen argues that the chapel's architecture, decoration, and use conveyed the notion of sacral kingship to its audience in Paris and in greater Europe, thereby implicitly elevating the French king to the level of suzerain, and establishing an early visual precedent for the political theories of royal sovereignty and French absolutism. By setting the chapel within its broader urban and royal contexts, this book offers new insight into royal representation and the rise of Paris as a political and cultural capital in the thirteenth century.

Tracing its origins and development, Bloom reveals that the Minaret, long understood to have been invented in the early years of Islam as the place from which the muezzin gives the call to prayer, was actually invented some two centuries later to be a visible symbol of Islam. From early Islam to the modern world, and from Iran, Egypt, Turkey and India to West and East Africa, the Yemen and Southeast Asia, this richly illustrated book is a sweeping tour of the minaret's position as the symbol of Islam.

For nearly eighteen centuries, two fundamental spatial plans dominated Christian architecture: the basilica and the central plan. In the 1880s, however, profound socio-economic and technological changes in the United States contributed to the rejection of these traditions and the development of a radically new worship building, the auditorium church. When Church Became Theatre focuses on this radical shift in evangelical Protestant architecture and links it to changes in worship style and religious mission.
The auditorium style, featuring a prominent stage from which rows of pews radiated up a sloping floor, was derived directly from the theatre, an unusual source for religious architecture but one with a similar goal-to gather large groups within range of a speaker's voice. Theatrical elements were prominent; many featured proscenium arches, marquee lighting, theatre seats, and even opera boxes.
Examining these churches and the discussions surrounding their development, Jeanne Halgren Kilde focuses on how these buildings helped congregations negotiate supernatural, social, and personal power. These worship spaces underscored performative and entertainment aspects of the service and in so doing transformed relationships between clergy and audiences. In auditorium churches, the congregants' personal and social power derived as much from consumerism as from piety, and clerical power lay in dramatic expertise rather than connections to social institutions. By erecting these buildings, argues Kilde, middle class religious audiences demonstrated the move toward a consumer-oriented model of religious participation that gave them unprecedented influence over the worship experience andchurch mission.

Kent is often referred to as 'the cradle of English Christianity'. Canterbury is not only home to the Anglican Communion but also the location of St Martin's Church, the oldest church in England in continuous use. Kent's religious heritage has benefitted from this, as has its proximity to both the Continent and London. Architecturally, the churches of Kent range from premier Norman churches to tiny manorial churches that still sit in sequestered churchyards having, apparently, been forgotten for centuries. These churches are distinguished by a greater than usual diversity of building material, from the poor-quality but distinctive Kentish ragstone or flint nodules from nearby fields to excellent-quality limestone imported from Normandy and locally produced bricks. Kent's churches also display glimpses into national history with links to early saints like St Mildred and St Sexburga through to Archbishop Thomas Becket, Anne Boleyn, Charles Dickens and Winston Churchill. In this book author John E. Vigar examines not only examples of the great church building campaigns of the medieval period but also later churches. Many have furnishings and memorials where individuals showed their importance in society by beautifying churches to their own glory, including Lullingstone, which was brought up to date in the early eighteenth century by its rich patron, Sir Percival Hart, and examples where new money from industry influenced the county's churches in the Victorian period, outstanding among which is Kilndown. This fascinating picture of an important part of the history of Kent over the centuries will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting this attractive county in England.

Northumberland was one of the greatest influences on the development of Christianity in Europe. Stan Beckensall guides the reader in words and full-colour pictures through the history of Northumberland's old churches, from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Reformation. The architecture of these beautiful buildings provides a unique insight into the history of the county. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the production of the Lindisfarne Gospels on Holy Island and those of the Venerable Bede in nearby Jarrow. This 'golden age' also produced exceptionally fine church buildings and their contents, many of which were later to be laid waste by Vikings. This book traces the achievements of that age through remaining structures such as the incredible crypt at Hexham, the tall, slender towers that are still part of many churches, and other features. The Norman period is also well represented, followed by the Transitional period when the pointed arch began to replace the rounded one, until it replaced it fully. Northumberland's development was then largely determined by its position as border country, which seriously affected church construction, the emphasis being more on defence in castles and fortified towers. Such period trends were confined to slight changes in existing churches, and there were few later developments except in Alnwick, protected by the defences of that town. In addition, Beckensall looks at the origins of the names of towns and villages that had churches, and comments on their location, with the help of stunning aerial photography.