Church
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- This article is about the Christian buildings of worship. For other uses of the word, see Church (disambiguation).
Image:Churchvillach.jpg Image:Église Collégiale Sainte Marthe (Tarascon).jpg Image:Churchbohinjvalley1.jpg
A church building (or simply church) is a building used in Christian worship. See also altar, altar rails, apse, confessional, dome, lych gate, nave, narthex, pew, pulpit, sanctuary.
Church comes from the Latin word: ecclesia, from Greek ekklesia. This had an original meaning of "assembly, congregation, council", literally "convocation", see Ecclesia (ancient Athens). The word ekklesia is also used many times in the Septuagint.
The word "church" in the world today, as the world knows it and in the way that is was made popular on earth, started with Jesus. He first used the word as recorded in the Bible in the book of Matthew, 16:18. At this time it was not common to use the word in any religious context, there was no "religious" church without this man "Jesus". Whether he wanted to use it in such a context is highly debatable.
The first mention of the word "church" in this context was: Matt 16:18 "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."
It was not common to use this term in this way because it was a political term. The "assembly, congregation, council" that the word "ecclesia", "ekklesia" and "chuch" refer to and come is from the concept of a team that is working together to resolve a problem faced by the wider community/society.
A reasonable way to interpret what Jesus was talking about is in the context of the word "Christ". This was the being that Peter found Jesus to be, the one that an entire nation was waiting for. This has to do with one who will come to save "Israel", the nation of God.
The term church means the ecclesia, assembly, congregation and council of God. A logical extrapolation is the senate/congress or team of God. This team in the context implied by the man Jesus is one that works to bring solutions to problems on earth.
This explanation is influenced by the teachings of Noel Woodroffe and interpreted by the writer.
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Origins of Christian places of worship
The architecture of Christian worship space grew out of the regular meetings of the followers of Christianity in private houses (see 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phm. 1:2) and synagogues (Acts 18:4), and occasionally in catacombs when necessary. When either the size of the community outgrew the space or the complexity of the uses of the space outpaced the architectural adaptation of houses, buildings began to be built specifically for worship, in general following the norms of Roman public buildings (read more at Basilica). This became much more feasible and common when Constantine stopped the Roman persecution of Christians by issuing the Edict of Milan in 313. Whether this is a scriptural example to be followed or man's own deviation from early example is questionable.
In the first century
The first Christians were, like Jesus, Jews resident in Palestine who worshipped on occasion in the Temple in Jerusalem and weekly in local synagogues. Temple worship was a ritual involving sacrifice, occasionally including the sacrifice of animals in atonement for sin, offered to Yahweh. The New testament includes many references to Jesus visiting the Temple, the first time as an infant with his parents.
The early history of the synagogue is controverted, but it seems to be an institution developed for public Jewish worship during the Babylonian captivity when the Jews did not have access to the Jerusalem Temple for ritual sacrifice. Instead, to give a rough summary, they developed a daily and weekly service of readings from the Torah or the prophets followed by commentary. This could be carried out in a house if the attendance was small enough, and in many towns of the Diaspora that was the case. In others more elaborate architectural settings developed, sometimes by converting a house and sometimes by converting a previously public building. The minimum requirements seem to have been a meeting room with adequate seating, a case for the Torah scrolls, and a raised platform for the reader and preacher.
Jesus himself participated in this sort of service as a reader and commentator (see Gospel of Luke 4: 16-24) and his followers probably remained worshippers in synagogues in some cities. However, following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70, the new Christian movement and Judaism increasingly parted ways. The Church became overwhelmingly Gentile sometime in the second century.
For the history of how services take place within a church, see worship or do a search on any particular religious denomination that you might be interested in.
Early examples of church architecture
The Syrian city of Dura-Europos on the West bank of the Euphrates was an outpost town between the Roman and Parthian empires. During a siege by Parthian troops in A.D. 257 the buildings in the outermost blocks of the city grid were partially destroyed and filled with rubble to reinforce the city wall. Thus were preserved and securely dated the earliest decorated church and a synagogue decorated with extensive wall paintings. Both had been converted from earlier private buildings.
The church at Dura Europos has a special room dedicated for baptisms with a large baptismal font.
A common architecture for churches is the shape of a cross (a long central rectangle, with side rectangles, and a rectangle in front for the altar space or sanctuary). These churches also often have a dome or other large vaulted space in the interior to represent or draw attention to the heavens. Other common shapes for churches include a circle, to represent eternity, or an octagon or similar star shape, to represent the church's bringing light to the world. Another common feature is the spire, a tall tower on the "west" end of the church or over the crossing.
See also
- Apostles' Creed
- Baptism
- Eucharist
- Hagia Sophia
- List of churches
- List of tallest church towers
- Liturgy
- Nicene Creed
- Places of worship
- Separation of church and state
Compare
- Basilica
- Cathedral
- Monastery
- Temple
- Chapel
- Parish
- Particular church
- House church
- Stave church
- Church in a pub
- Storefront church
- Double Church
External links
cs:Kostel cy:Eglwys da:Kirke (bygning) de:Kirchengebäude et:Kirik (pühakoda) es:Iglesia eo:Eklezio fr:Église (édifice) id:Gereja it:Chiesa he:כנסייה hu:Egyház ko:교회 la:Ecclesia lt:Bažnyčia nl:Kerk nds:Kark nrm:Égllise ja:教会 no:Kirke nn:Kyrkje pl:Kościół pt:Igreja sco:Kirk simple:Church sv:Kyrka tr:Kilise zh:教堂