Thinking about church architecture has come to an impasse. Reformers and traditionalists are talking past each other. In Theology in Stone, Richard Kieckhefer seeks to help both sides move beyond the standoff toward a fruitful conversation about houses of worship. Drawing on a wide range of historical examples with an eye to their contemporary relevance, he offers refreshing new ideas about the meanings and uses of church architecture.

Text in English & German. Three places mark the chequered history of the provost church of St Trinitatis Leipzig. Not far from the site of the present new building was the historic church built in 1847 that was largely destroyed in World War Two. It took almost three decades for this church finally to be replaced in 1982. At the insistence of the East-German authorities, however, this building had to be erected in a suburb. Because of its inconvenient location and also because the building had structural damage from the very beginning, the congregation decided in 2008 to take a chance on a new start in the city centre. The third church of St Trinitatis, consecrated in 2015, is the largest Catholic church to be built in East Germany since the political turnover of 1989/90. The new church is located not only in the centre of town, but at a place that could not be more prominent: facing the large complex of the Neues Rathaus. In 2009 a competition held for the new church building with the adjacent parish centre was won by the Leipzig architects Ansgar and Benedikt Schulz. Their clever use of the triangular site particularly impressed the selection committee; at the same time, with the compact body of the church on the east and the tower on the west, they created two striking urban landmarks. Between the tower and the church is the spacious courtyard, which is open on two sides towards the surrounding area, emphasising the congregations programmatic 'openness'. The complex owes its homogenous appearance to the fact that all parts of the buildings are clad with local porphyry, an igneous rock that shimmers in delicate shades of red. While outwardly the church looks quite hermetic, the interior, with an inside height of 14.5 m, surprises the visitor by its vibrant luminosity. The decisive factor here is the skylight on the east side at a height of 22 m. From a source that is invisible to the worshippers, zenith light falls on the entire back wall behind the altar. In its disposition the church interior follows the decisions of the Second Vatican Council: separation between the priests space and the congregations space is abolished, the high altar is replaced by a peoples altar, and the faithful gather of the believers in communio around the liturgical centre. In addition to his main activity as an architecture publicist Wolf-gang Jean Stock was head of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur christ-liche Kunst and its gallery in Munich for nine years. Considering his rigorous artistic attitude, instinctively reminiscent of the work of Hilla and Bernd Becher, there is a certain consistency about the fact that the photographer Stefan Muller congenially creates images of the buildings of Owald Mathias Ungers, Max Dudler, Kleihues + Kleihues or Schulz und Schulz.

The Sistine Chapel enchants the visitor by the splendid harmony it radiates as a concept fully realised, by the unmatched artistic qualities of the individual works, the profound ideas that govern the planning of the paintings and the splendid, robust and lively figures created by Michelangelo and other artists. In this book, jointly produced by the Musei Vaticani and Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the chapel' s paintings are examined in relation to the theological interpretations prevailing in that period. Many of these works have already been presented in isolation by leading experts on the chapel, with detailed descriptions and comments. However, its recent restoration makes possible a new approach to interpreting the pictures, based among other factors on the symbolism of the colours. Greek language text. 186 illus., most colour.

Decorated with the richest, most beautiful mosaics in the world, the Venetian church of San Marco is quite literally a treasure house of medieval art. The domes and walls of the church, encrusted with stone, glass, and gold, have been recognized, over the centuries, as a glorious historical and artistic record. Peopled with hundreds and figures--Adam and Eve, Noah and his progeny, Isaiah, Christ, Mark, of course, and other holy men and women of Venice--these mosaics create a cosmic panorama. "The Mosaic Decoration of San Marco, Venice" brings these unrivaled mosaics into breathtaking focus, combining a descriptive history of their creation and repair over the ages with close-up photographs revealing their iconographic detail.

English description: This book is a comparative literary history of the two monasteries St. Gall (Eremus) and Reichenau (Insula). Many examples show that the spirit of competition was decisive for the intellectual and artistic development of these two great monasteries of the Lake Constance Region. The chapters cover the following topics: Libraries, Scribes and Painters, School and Church, Gardens and Guests, "Hausherren" and "Hausliteratur," Poets of the Golden Age - Scholars of the Silver Age, Historians. A chronological table, a bibliography of the medieval literature of St. Gall and Reichenau and 16 illustrations are also included in an effort to provide a more comprehensive overview of one of the most fertile "literary landscapes" of the Latin Middle Ages. German description: Das Buch ist eine Einfuhrung in die mittelalterlich-lateinische Literaturgeschichte St. Gallens und der Reichenau. Es enthalt eine vergleichende Darstellung unter den Gesichtspunkten Bibliotheken, Schreiber und Maler, Schule und Kirche, Garten und Gaste, "Hausherren" und "Hausliteratur," Dichter des Goldenen / Gelehrte des Silbernen Zeitalters und Geschichtsschreiber. Eine Zeittafel, eine umfassende Bibliographie zur mittelalterlichen Literatur der beiden Bodenseekloster und der Bildteil sind angelegt als Versuche zur weiteren perspektivischen Durchdringung einer der schonsten und fruchtbarsten Literaturlandschaften des lateinischen Mittelalters. Das Buch wie auch die Ausstellung der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen im Jahr 2002 zeigt uberdies, wie sich kultureller Fortschritt aus dem fruchtbaren Mit- und Gegeneinander ebenburtiger Konkurrenten entwickelt. In der zweiten, uberarbeiteten Auflage des 1987 erstmalig erschienenen Bandes wurden Anmerkungen, wichtige Daten in der zeitlichen Ubersicht sowie bibliographische Daten erganzt und eine verbesserte Ubertragung der lat. Tropen und Sequenzen ins Deutsche vorgelegt. Auch wurde das Buch um einen Beitrag zur Bedeutung der Musik in den Handschriften der beiden Kloster erweitert.