'Exquisite ... A wonderment of an essay about a wonderment of a building' Paul Preston

Its scaffolding-cloaked spires reach up to the heavens, dominating the Barcelona skyline and drawing in millions of visitors every year. What seduces our attention is perhaps a combination: not only its almost megalomaniac ambition and architectural extravagance but the sheer longevity of its construction.

Its creator, Antoni Gaudí, 'God's Architect', saw the first stone laid on 19 March 1882 and yet it is unlikely to be completed until 2026 at the very earliest. It has survived two World Wars, the ravages of the Spanish Civil War and the 'Hunger Years' of Franco's rule. It has defied the critics, the penny-pinching accountants, the conservative town-planners and the slaves to sterile modernism to witness the most momentous changes in society and history.

The Sagrada Familia explores the evolution of this remarkable building, working through the decades right up to the present day before looking beyond to the final stretch of its construction. It is at once a guidebook and a chronological history, and a moving and compelling study of man's aspiration towards the divine.

Rich in detail, vast in scope, this is a revelatory and authoritative study of a building and its place in history and the genius that created it.

Fifty years after the Second Vatican Council, architectural historian Robert Proctor examines the transformations in British Roman Catholic church architecture that took place in the two decades surrounding this crucial event. Inspired by new thinking in theology and changing practices of worship, and by a growing acceptance of modern art and architecture, architects designed radical new forms of church building in a campaign of new buildings for new urban contexts. A focussed study of mid-twentieth century church architecture, Building the Modern Church considers how architects and clergy constructed the image and reality of the Church as an institution through its buildings. The author examines changing conceptions of tradition and modernity, and the development of a modern church architecture that drew from the ideas of the liturgical movement. The role of Catholic clergy as patrons of modern architecture and art and the changing attitudes of the Church and its architects to modernity are examined, explaining how different strands of post-war architecture were adopted in the field of ecclesiastical buildings. The church building's social role in defining communities through rituals and symbols is also considered, together with the relationships between churches and modernist urban planning in new towns and suburbs. Case studies analysed in detail include significant buildings and architects that have remained little known until now. Based on meticulous historical research in primary sources, theoretically informed, fully referenced, and thoroughly illustrated, this book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the church architecture, art and theology of this period.

Uniquely in the kingdoms of western Christendom, the Scottish bishops obtained authority, in 1225, to hold inter-diocesan meetings without a supervisory archbishop, and continued to meet in this way for nearly 250 years. Donald Watt provides an authoritative study of these church councils from the Latin and English records based on original sources.In addition to creating an original work of considerable historical interest, Professor Watt brings discussion of the councils and their significance into the broader context of Scotland's political, legal, ecclesiastical and social situation over a long period.An important contribution to Scottish church history and to its influence on contemporary affairs.

Escaping from narrative history, this book takes a deep look at the Catholic question in 18th-century Ireland. It asks how people thought about Catholicism, Protestantism and their society, in order to reassess the content and importance of the religious conflict. In doing this, Dr Cadoc Leighton provides a study which offers thought-provoking ways of looking not only at the 18th century, but at modern Irish history in general. It also places Ireland clearly within the mainstream of European historical developments.

Converso and Morisco are the terms applied to those Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity in large numbers and usually under duress in late Medieval Spain. The Converso and Morisco Studies series examines the implications of these mass conversions for the converts themselves, for their heirs (also referred to as Conversos and Moriscos) and for Medieval and Modern Spanish culture. As the essays in this collection attest, the study of the Converso and Morisco phenomena is not only important for those scholars focusing on Spanish society and culture, but for all academics interested in questions of identity, Otherness, nationalism, religious intolerance and the challenges of modernity. Contributors: Luis F. Bernabe Pons, Michel Boeglin, Stephanie M. Cavanaugh, William P. Childers, Carlos Gilly, Kevin Ingram, Nicola Jennings, Patrick J. O'Banion, Francisco Javier Perea Siller, Mohamed Saadan, and Enrique Soria Mesa.

A clear, concise and detailed analysis of the eclectic and beautiful visual and material culture of Catholicism. Focusing on a carefully curated selection of Catholic art and artefacts, this book explains the meaning of the iconography and the mystic power of the faith's ritual objects. A wealth of often hidden symbols are identified and examined close up, building into a catalogue of key visual symbols for readers to use to interpret all Catholic visual and material culture. The book is organized into three parts - Tenet, Locus and Spiritus - each containing three themed chapters. The first part introduces the centrepieces of the faith, explaining the symbolism in the artistic representation of the holy family, apostles and saints, and in stories from scripture. The second part examines places of worship, identifying the constituent parts of the cathedral and presenting evocative images of roadside shrines. The third part explores celebrations and traditions, including personal devotional tools and jewelry. For each of the nine themed chapters, illustrated introductory text is followed by a spread-by-spread presentation of the key figures, the key stories and the key iconography relevant to each theme. Paintings and artefacts are examined in detail, identifying and explaining the symbolism and the stories depicted in each. As the book progresses, readers will build up knowledge of the entire Catholic visual code - the symbols that define Catholic practice, the attributes of the saints, the parts of the cathedral - allowing them to interpret Catholic imagery and objects wherever they find them and to understand the tenets, sites and rituals of the faith.

Praise for the German Edition: "This publication will spark a discussion about the role of the Catholic Church leadership in the GDR." . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

From 1945 to 1989, relations between the communist East German state and the Catholic Church were contentious and sometimes turbulent. Drawing on extensive Stasi materials and other government and party archives, this study provides the first systematic overview of this complex relationship and offers many new insights into the continuities, changes, and entanglements of policies and strategies on both sides. Previously undiscovered records in church archives contribute to an analysis of regional and sectoral conflicts within the Church and various shades of cooperation between nominal antagonists. The volume also explores relations between the GDR and the Vatican and addresses the oft-neglected communist "church business" controversially made in exchange for hard Western currency.

Bernd Schaefer is a Senior Research Scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center's Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) in Washington, D.C. Previously, he was a Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., as well as a Fellow at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway, and the Hannah Arendt Institute at the Technische Universitat in Dresden, Germany. His previous publications (as co-editor) include Ostpolitik, 1969-1974: Global and European Responses (2009); Historical Justice in International Perspective (2009); and American Detente and German Ostpolitik (2004). Between 1993 and 1997, he served as secretary for the East German Catholic Church's Stasi lustration commission in Berlin.

This book presents the history and theology of a remarkable body of Christians, formed as a result of the revival of interest in the prophetic Scriptures stimulated by the events of the French Revolution. Here we have an example of a charismatic renewal within the mainstream Churches, which was rejected by them, and which hence led to a worldwide body, governed by "restored apostles," and with its own structure, liturgy, doctrine, and hierarchy of ministers. It was a movement directed towards the reunion of the Churches, uncompromising in its adherence to Scripture, its typological interpretation of the Old Testament, and in its longing for the Parousia. It sought to bring together all that was best in the various Christian traditions. Eastern as well as Western, in preparation for the return of the Church's Bridegroom in glory. The strong ecumenical purpose of this body; its approach to the reunification of Churches and clergy; the breadth and beauty of its liturgy; its resolution of internal tensions between the charismatic and established hierarchical ministries; and its emphasis on eschatology: all these are of particular relevance to Christians today.

This lively narrative, written by a monk, relates the history of the abbey of Saffron Walden from its foundation around 1136 to the year 1203. Its characters include the English kings, the earls of Essex, and other local landowners, large and small, as well as the monks and other ecclesiastics. Its interest extends far beyond the local: the editors' introduction and notes establish the chronicle's position as a valuable historical source.