The Architecture of Faith
A Christian Theology of Sacred Assembly
“Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD” (Joel 1:14, NIV).
The one true God calls us to congregate, to assemble. We must gather somewhere, and wherever that place is becomes the location where God meets with us.1 Saint David’s Day is hardly in competition with Saint Patrick’s Day. Yet this early Christian evangelist to the British people in present day Wales was said to have erected a small chapel in every place where he planted a church. The Church is, of course, the assembly of the Elect, those who have been engrafted into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. But Saint David recognized the need for a place to assemble. Thus, the chapels all over Wales. Legend? Partly. Some truth? Almost certainly. My family and I knelt for prayer in one of the earliest chapels in Britain near the dramatically beautiful Pembrokeshire coastline.
The place—as much as a cathedral or a meeting House in New England—is said to be sacred. What is sacred?
What is Sacred?
To be set apart for God’s use is to declare the place holy.2 However, we do not infuse something with holiness; it becomes holy because it is used for God’s service. For instance, the little donkey on Palm Sunday was holy unto the Lord, if only for that moment and purpose. One might imagine the donkey boasting to the other animals, “I carried the King!”
The idea of holy space reveals that a theology of place is central to the Judeo-Christian tradition and reaches its fulfillment in the Christian Church.3 As Greg Beale has shown, the temple signified God dwelling among His people, foreshadowing the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Yet, the presence of God with man does not negate the call to “come unto me” (Matthew 11:28). Holiness resides where God is. Repentance and faith in the resurrected and reigning Christ is the only way to experience the fullness of the Triune God: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9, NKJV).
What is Holy?
We are declared holy—set apart for God’s glory—not by our inherent nature, but because the Holy Spirit has grafted us into the Body of Christ. Any growth in such holiness is due to the increasing presence of Christ in our lives, not by our own doing. We are transformed through God’s means of grace, receiving His supernatural power. As Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us, salvation and sanctification are both gifts from God, preventing any boasting. Holiness, then, is God’s work within us, and through the means of grace, we are transformed “from grace unto grace” (John 1:16, ESV). The fullness of Christ manifests in us as we mature, going from “strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7) and reaching “the full measure of the stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13, ESV).
Sacred Assembly
The prophet Joel declares, “Call a sacred assembly” (Joel 1:14), which emphasizes the importance of setting aside space for worship. While we no longer uphold the Old Testament temple system, the concept of holy space persists in Christian worship. Sacred space is not mystical; rather, it is physical space set apart for God’s service. When we gather in accordance with Scripture, the space becomes holy. Unlike the pagan notion of a dualism between material and spiritual realms, Christianity affirms the goodness of all creation. Thus, we may speak of both the sacred and the spiritual within our lived experience, or Lebenswelt. The sacred, or the holy, encompasses both God’s transcendence and our transformative response to Him.
The temple in Jerusalem illustrates God’s desire to dwell with His people. Its architecture reflects a theology of God’s self-revelation. Every feature of the temple was interconnected, much like the components of Christian liturgy, each pointing to the gospel’s message. As Roger Scruton observes, temple stones bear witness to the intersection of time and eternity in sacred assembly.4
In the early church, believers often gathered in homes. Philemon, for example, hosted an assembly in his house. Archaeological evidence suggests that these house churches, though modest, did not diminish the need for dedicated community spaces for worship. In fact, as the apostolic era gave way to local leadership, house churches transitioned to dedicated buildings for corporate worship, continuing the sacred assembly tradition.
Today, more than ever, we need the renewal of sacred assembly, as Hebrews 10:25 exhorts: “not neglecting to meet together… as we see the Day drawing near.” The rise of secularism has blurred the distinction between worship and other gatherings, leading to a loss of reverence for sacred space. Some churches have adopted secular forms of architecture and liturgy, diluting the recognition of “holy.” On the other hand, there are countless grand cathedrals of Europe that are empty. So, we are not calling for a “churchy” architecture for its own sake. Rather, we seek a revival of the awareness that God is with us, and, if so, all things have come under His Lordship. If that is so, “How then shall we assemble?” “How then shall we build?”
If you think that we are merely calling for architectural traditionalism (we are not), I would prefer to illustrate our point with the Huguenots of France rather than, e.g., Saint Paul’s in London.5 For these stalwart believers in the French Reformed Church worshipped in forests when persecuted, bringing their pulpit with them. Like Israel fleeing with the Ark of the Covenant, they demonstrated that sacred assembly is not confined to a specific building but is defined by a time and space set apart for God’s worship. Sacredness is found in God’s presence, not in the grandeur of a structure. Whether in a grand cathedral or a simple chapel, the essence of worship remains the same: God with us. When the Huguenots settled in Charleston they built a meeting house for sacred assembly. The biblical theology that caused them to carry the pulpits on their backs through the forests of Brittany led the Huguenots to erect a house of sacred assembly in the New World based on the blueprint of the Christian Faith.
As Christ continues to build His Church, a renewed focus on the body, soul, edifice, and liturgy is essential. Jesus promised, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18, ESV). Whether we worship in homes or restore old cathedrals, the recovery of sacred time and space is vital for the future of Christian worship.
We must reorient our practice of worship—whether in a cave, cathedral, or house—toward this theological vision: assembling to glorify God with reverence and awe. We do so by encouraging one another through Word, Sacrament, and Prayer. And as pilgrims in a strange land, we assemble, setting apart the common for the holy. We worship, we fellowship, we take the bread and the cup, and we proclaim, others being unfolded into the remnant. And we anticipate the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise in Revelation 21:3:
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God” (ESV).
Dive Deeper
Adams, Edward. The Earliest Christian Meeting Places: Almost Exclusively Houses? Edinburgh: A&C Black, 2013.
Barnes, M. Craig. Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls. Baker Books, 2006.
Beale, G. K. The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God. United Kingdom: InterVarsity Press, 2014.
Chase, Nathan P. “Developments in Early Eucharistic Praying in Light of Changes in Early Christian Meeting Spaces.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 32, no. 3 (2024): 367–402. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/936759.
Cianca, Jenn. Sacred Ritual, Profane Space: The Roman House as Early Christian Meeting Place. McGill-Queen’s Press - MQUP, 2018.
Davis, Stephen M. The French Huguenots and Wars of Religion: Three Centuries of Resistance for Freedom of Conscience. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021.
Dawn, Marva J. A Royal Waste of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999.
Elsted, Janet Elizabeth. “Time and Timelessness in The Prelude of William Wordsworth and Four Quartets of T. S. Eliot.” University of British Columbia, 1975. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0093438.
Evans, D. Simon. Review of Review of Rhigyfarch’s Life of St. David. The Basic Mid Twelfth-Century Latin Text with Introduction, Critical Apparatus and Translation, by J. W. James. Medium Ævum 37, no. 2 (1968): 183–85. https://doi.org/10.2307/43627433.
Evans, J. Wyn, and Jonathan M. Wooding, eds. “The Life of Saint David.” In St David of Wales: Cult, Church and Nation. Suffolk, England, UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2007. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/st-david-of-wales/life-of-st-david/50E5F79607739671E9C60BD68AB8E916.
Gish, Nancy K. Time in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot: A Study in Structure and Theme. Springer, 1981.
Hamilton, Sarah, and Andrew Spicer. “Defining the Holy: The Delineation of Sacred Space.” In Defining the Holy. Routledge, 2006.
———. “Defining the Holy: The Delineation of Sacred Space.” In Defining the Holy. Routledge, 2006.
Hearson, Blake. Go Now to Shiloh: A Biblical Theology of Sacred Space. B&H Publishing Group, 2020.
Husserl, Edmund. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy. Germany: Northwestern University Press, 1970.
Kilde, Jeanne Halgren. Sacred Power, Sacred Space: An Introduction to Christian Architecture and Worship. Oxford University Press, 2008.
Lathrop, Gordon W., and Timothy J. Wengert. Christian Assembly: Marks of the Church in a Pluralistic Age. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004.
McKim, Donald K., and David F. Wright. Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith. Westminster John Knox Press, 1992.
Millham, Matthew. “Army Holds Final Retreat Ceremony in Heidelberg.” Stars and Stripes, September 9, 2013. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/army-holds-final-retreat-ceremony-in-heidelberg-1.migrated.
Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Robertson, O. Palmer. The Christ of the Covenants. Philipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1980.
Scruton, Roger. The Soul of the World. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Snyder, Graydon F. “Early Christian Meeting Places, Constantinian Basilicas and Anabaptist Restorationism.” Mennonite Quarterly Review 73, no. 2 (April 1, 1999): 167–78. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=00259373&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA202917663&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs.
Tavernor, Robert. On Alberti and the Art of Building. Yale University Press, 1998.
Tavernor, Robert William. “Concinnitas in the Architectural Theory and Practice of Leon Battista Alberti.,” November 12, 1985. http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/239042.
Westphal, Charles. “The Marks of the Church*.” The Ecumenical Review 12, no. 2 (1960): 173–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.1960.tb00758.x.n
See, e.g., Marva Dawn, A Royal Waste of Time.
For more on the biblical concept of “holy,” see, e.g., Rudolf Otto. The Idea of the Holy. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1970.
For a deeper dive on this subject, consider:
Brightman, R. “Church Architecture as an Approach to the Study of Religion.” Horizons 3 (1976): 75-82. https://consensus.app/papers/church-architecture-approach-study-religion-brightman/4f2a41494bc252998e2b68ed47312fd5/?utm_source=chatgpt.
Jasper, David. “The Arts and Modern Christian Architecture.” Theology 114 (2011): 353-362. https://consensus.app/papers/arts-christian-architecture-jasper/388d4e64522e51d18782cd161b3ff2c0/?utm_source=chatgpt.
Whyte, William. “The Ethics of the Empty Church: Anglicanism’s Need for a Theology of Architecture.” Journal of Anglican Studies 13 (2015): 172-188. https://consensus.app/papers/ethics-empty-church-anglicanism-need-theology-whyte/27f12f9a7ba3548a8a36e48b057538ac/?utm_source=chatgpt.
Davies, J. G. “Architecture and Theology.” The Expository Times 73 (1962): 231-233. https://consensus.app/papers/architecture-theology-davies/75695b756d67575bbf287c81fe6cd3a2/?utm_source=chatgpt.
Prey, Pierre de la Ruffinière du. “Hawksmoor’s ‘Basilica after the Primitive Christians’: Architecture and Theology.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 48 (1989): 38-52. https://consensus.app/papers/hawksmoors-basilica-primitive-christians-architecture-prey/df9146c598d85f5a87df71192b496954/?utm_source=chatgpt.
Chiotti, Roberto. “The Architecture of Eco-Theology: Towards a New Typology for Christian Sacred Space.” Religions (2021Learn more with Greg K. Beale. The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God. United Kingdom: InterVarsity Press, 2014.
See Edmund Husserl. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy. Germany: Northwestern University Press, 1970.
See Scruton, The Soul of the World.
The Huguenots were French Protestants who followed the teachings of John Calvin and were primarily active during the 16th and 17th centuries. Key dates include:
• Edict of Nantes (1598): This edict granted substantial rights and religious freedom to the Huguenots in France, temporarily halting their persecution.
• Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685): This led to renewed persecution of the Huguenots, forcing many to flee France and settle in places like Charleston, South Carolina.
• The settlement in Charleston: The Huguenots established their church in Charleston in 1681, building a meeting house for worship, which reflected their beliefs in sacred assembly.
Brilliant. Thank you.