This text offer a brief history of Christianity in India, which allows to understand how Christianity played an important role in the formation of Indian society in general, while other religions contributed to the cultural and artistic evolution of this country. It then traces the fundamental features of the relationship between Christianity and inculturation, based on the book «Christ and Culture» by H. Richard Niebuhr, and finally presents the main buildings that have marked Christian architecture in India, as well as the most recent achievements. The article concludes with a reflection on some works which, in the author’s opinion, open a new avenue for the inculturation of Christianity in the Subcontinent.
Indonesia demonstrates a variety of cultural expressions through foreign contacts but has never adopted other cultures fully. The country blended significant components into local circumstances to create a distinctive culture with geographic variations, and its history must be understood in its terms. The design of Maclaine Pont (1936)’s Pohsarang Church combined Hindu-Buddhist elements into a Western building. Blimbingsari stone-wooden Church destroyed by an earthquake (1976) was rebuilt in the Balinese pavilion style with a running water garden. Similarities showed in Batak Karo architecture in Berastagi’s St. Francis Assisi, and Joglo architecture in Ganjuran Church where Jesus is depicted as a Javanese King. This exceptional regional phenomenon was due to integrating tradition, ethnicity, geographical space, and belief in multicultural societies. This paper discusses a few contemporary churches in Indonesia by historical contexts.
The first Christian temples in Korea were built on the basis of traditional architecture, and were mainly influenced by the architectural and construction concept of the 'hanok' (traditional Korean house). This architectural and construction principle aims to adapt the building to the natural environment, as well as to the entry of sunlight. Early religious architecture, mainly Protestant, was also characterized by a spatial organization that reflected the Korean culture of distinction between men and women. This article, in addition to presenting some of the principles that formulated South Korean Christian religious architecture, aims to point out in contemporary production the dialogue between traditional principles and new approaches to worship space.
Among the wealth of buildings consecrated to the Shinto religion, Yamaguchi has a Christian place of worship: the Sanctuary of Saint Francis Xavier. The lot chosen is the same on which the previous church stood, symbol of the city and destroyed by a fire in 1991. Consonances and relations could be found with spaces that have wished to express with force the tension towards the Absolute not only in our Western world but also in the spaces of Oriental architecture, in particular Japanese, where the striving towards that spoliation and essentialness of things that is, a bottom, a thirst for truth is perceived. Finally, our effort had as its aim to make the architecture speak a universal language of the hearth of man, rapt to the infinite desire to experience beauty and to find himself once again within it to have an authentic experience of interior joy.
For a long time, Japanese church buildings were of little interest for Western observers. This attitude started to change since the late 1980s when Tadao Andô’s Chapel on the Water attracted Western attention, as did buildings by Jun Itami and Fumihiko Maki. The works of these architects fuelled the global search for a contemporary design of worship. However, their works also pose a discursive problem: hardly any of these intriguing buildings is actually a church or a place of worship in a more general way. These are largely event spaces to stage and celebrate a romantic relationship. The entrepreneurial background does not change the expressiveness and quality of the architecture itself, but it certainly changes the economic and functional contexts in which the building had been created and still being maintained. In addition, it also raises questions about the ways in which ideas of religion and architecture travel the world and carry meaning on both universal and local planes.
Since its foundation, the Society of Jesus has used education and dialogue between cultures as elements to achieve the integral development of the person, while at the same time spreading the Catholic faith. As a result of the application of these founding principles, the Jesuits establish Sophia University (Jochi Daigaku) in Japan, and are in charge of the Church of St. Ignatius, thus seeking through both the understanding of cultures and the diffusion of the principles of Catholicism in this country. A historical and cultural analysis of the Sophia University and the ecclesiastical complex that houses the church of St. Ignatius shows how the Society of Jesus has sought to spread the Catholic faith over time in countries with a culture different from that of the West and religious beliefs more deeply rooted than Catholicism, as is the case of Japan, taking advantage of significant elements for the country and for the order itself, such as openness to the world and the inclusion of elements of local cultures and traditions.
The International Prize for Sacred Architecture granted by the Frate Sole Foundation, for twenty-five years, makes it possible to monitor the state of the art regarding contemporary religious architecture. Its seven editions offer an unbeatable architectonic panorama for the Christian confessional destiny. Focusing on Catholic architecture in the Far East, the work proposes to analyze the works submitted in the last two editions, and to identify project decisions on architecture and iconography. In this way, the formal expressions and built materials will be observed, the relationship between temple and nature, and an attempt will be made to recognize in the images the acting influences, Western or specifically Eastern. The participating production of the award is a catalog for the study of temples and their conception, capable of nourishing these and other observations.
This study explores the artistic, cultural and historical significance of the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in the village of Chukow (Fanlu Township, Chiayi County), designed by SVD Father Friedrich Linzenbach (1904-81) in 1960. The deserted church mirrored the boom of church building projects in Taiwan during the 1950s to 1970s, along with the relocation of the western missionaries from the mainland China to Taiwan since the outbreak of the civil war between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party. The appearance, structure, and interior design of this church reveal not only the style and concept of the European modern church architecture, but also the influence of the liturgical movement, Western reflections on Asian culture and local climate. It is a witness to an unknown history of European- Taiwan intercultural understanding, and a precious cultural heritage of Taiwan, worth of urgent saving and safeguarding.
