Paris – Los Angeles: The Long Journey of Christian Architecture in the 20th Century

Abstract

Since the decade of the 20s in the last century, two important cultural currents converge progressively in the Catholic sphere: the Modern Architecture Movement, with its spirit of formal renewal under the motto "the form follows the function", and the Liturgical Movement, which expected to help the faithful participate more fruitfully in the celebration of the cult. The result shall be an impulse of renovation that will noticeably modify the form of a Christian temple, to the point that the 20th Century might be considered one of the most important moments of change for the history of sacred architecture. This process, nevertheless, is not to be free of imbalances that show the difficulty that both contemporary movements might have when dialoguing with one another.