How to Read a Church: A Guide to Images, Symbols and Meanings in Churches and Cathedrals

My view of the book is that the pictures are beautiful and it has a lot of content, but I would have preferred more details on the different subjects. Mostly only the explanation according to the christian belief is described, but since the christian churches' symbols are a mix of its own symbols and those of the previous religions, I feel there is a lot more to be said about the symbols than just this. I bought this book because of my interest in gargoyls and on this subject I think the explanation was a little "light".

Disappointing (0/1 people found this helpful)

This book is a well known so I made the mistake of buying on line without checking the contents. It's full of arcane items that most churches don't contain, and misses out so many things that can be found in churches everywhere that people ask questions about -- e.g. no mention of aumbries or lights in the index. It is more like a stuffy text book than a reference book. There is a gap in the market for a simpler book that is less comprehensive and therefore more accessible. Thank heavens for the Amazon returns service.

useful reference (3/11 people found this helpful)

How to read a church (12/53 people found this helpful)

The book has been written by a commited Christian, and several beliefs are stated as 'though they are facts- e.g."God guided the Israelites towards the Red Sea in a pillar cloud by day......" I personally do not accept this. Instead of concentrating on symbols, the author has taken the opportunity of paraphrasing,sometimes at length, many stories and other text from the Bible.
Some of the author's text is too egocentric e.g."(St.Lawrence's) jokes are a little rough for today's tastes." Has the author ever read Viz?
This is a "nice" book for "nice" people and the range of subject matter is too limited.

The book does what it says in the title (38/38 people found this helpful)

I enjoyed reading this book and will refer to it often in the future. One of my pleasures is to visit cathederals and churches to appreciate the architecture, the history and place in communiy - but I had little detailed knowledge.

This book covers a wide variety of topics, some of which are: the orientation of the church; types of halos (5 are well illustrated using clear line drawings); the masons designs of gargoyles; the roles of Jesus, Mary and the Saints (as a non practicing Christian this was very useful); it even has a descriptive drawings of the vestments of bishops and priests (and how many of you know what a Rochet or an Alb is, and who wears it).

The writing style is informative and economical - no wasted words, but the ideas and knowledge are conveyed well

The copy I got from Amazon is hard cover, but is easy to carry as it is only approx 135 mm by 210 mm with 246 pages. The photos are in black and white.

How to Read a Church: A Guide to Images, Symbols and Meanings in Churches and Cathedrals

Richard Taylor

Reader Reviews:

Great pictures - less background data (0/1 people found this helpful)

Disappointing (0/1 people found this helpful)

useful reference (3/11 people found this helpful)

How to read a church (12/53 people found this helpful)

The book does what it says in the title (38/38 people found this helpful)

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