288 pages | 68 halftones | 7 x 10
Advance Praise:
“This book provides both a dazzling synthesis and a powerful new vision of modern church architecture. Osborne situates American modernist churches within the broad and deep context of Catholic progressive thought, governed by the biological paradigm of evolutionary change and organic development. She shows how concepts of church design were linked to understandings of the Church itself, beginning well before the Second Vatican Council. This should be required reading for architects and architectural historians, but also for students of Catholic thought and culture generally.” (Richard Kieckhefer, Northwestern University)
“American Catholics and the Church of Tomorrow shows how by the mid-twentieth century, certain aspects of modernity began to affect the tradition-bound Catholic Church. The impact was seen in the Church’s changing outlook on church design and furnishing, on social issues such as psychedelic drug experimentation and civil rights activism, and on the sacred liturgy itself. Osborne’s book is accomplished, well-written, and thoroughly researched.” (Paula M. Kane, University of Pittsburgh)