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The Mormon Steeple: a Symbol of What?

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The Mormon Steeple: a Symbol of What? S U N S T 0 N E The Churc.h buildings may not tell us all we want to know about God, but they reveal much about the people who built them. THE MORMON STEEPLE: A SYMBOL OF WHAT? By Martha Sonntag Bradley TEN YEARS AGO I PUBLISHED Moreover, in the view of art my first paper: "’The Cloning of critic Panofsky in Meaning in the Mormon Architecture.< I was sure Visual Arts, content is "that which a it would influence the Church’s work betrays but does not parade." building policy. It did not. In fact, It is "the basic attitude of a nation, the Churchg approach to building a period, a class, a religious persua- is today even further removed from sion-all this qualified by one per- aesthetics and more deeply en- sonality and condensed into one trenched in bureaucracy. Neverthe- work. ,3 less, this paper, a decade later, is Forms that express the "basic based on a naive hope that Mormon attitude" of an age arise in many architecture will once again be en- ways. For example, a reverence for dowed with symbolic potency. the earth’s power is reflected in an arc of lightning, the undulation of THE SYMBOLIC IMPACT ocean waves, rolling hills or craggy OF FORM mountain peaks, or simply in the IN architecture there is no such quiet horizontality of the land- scape. They reflect the elemental phenomenon as accidental form. It order of the universe. In similar is the art most closely connected to ways we invent our own symbols to function. Here, ideas are made help us interpret the meaning of more accessible, given permanence, our existence. endurability. Architecture is the em- All artistic forms arise from this bodiment of idea and belief. interplay between idea and mate- Modern artist and social critic Ben Shann commented on the crit- rial, from a compulsion to embody ical connection between form and ideas in physical and tangible form. 1. The St. George Tabernacle We better understand something if belief. According to Shann, form is we can see it, or touch it, or hold it. the visible shape of all mang Perhaps ideas or beliefs will endure growth; it is the living picture of his tribe at its most if they have concrete form. Shann continues: primitive, and of his civilization at its most sophisticated For form is not just the intention of content; it is state. Form is the many faces of the legend--bardic, epic, the embodiment of content. Form is based, first, upon sculptural, musical, pictorial, architectural; it is the infi- a supposition, a theme. Form is second, a marshaling nite images of religion; it is the expression and the 2 of materials, the inert matter in which the theme is to remnant of self. Form is the very shape of content. be cast. Form is third, a setting of boundaries, of limits, the whole extent of idea, but no more, an outer shape of idea. Form is next, the relating of inner MARTHA SONNTAG BRADLEY is an assistant professor of history shapes to the outer limits, the initial establishing of at Brigham Young University. She is also the new co-editor of harmonies. Form is further, the abolishing of excess- Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. ive content, of content that falls outside the true limits SEPTEMBER 1992 PAGE 39 S U N S T 0 N E 2. The Tower of Babel 3. Greenwich, Utah 4. Meadow, Utah of the theme. It is the abolishing of excessive materi- of these functions and, over time, have expressed the hierarchy als, whatever material is extraneous to inner harmony, of these functions. to the order of shapes now established. Form is thus The notion of a church as a gathering place of the faithful a discipline, an ordering, according to the needs of and the literal house of God has its roots in Old Testament content.4 theology. The Old Testament story of Jacob’s dream typified the As human beings, we are compelled to interpret the mean- process through which humankind moved from literal to ing of our existence through symbols. Our propensity forsymbolic understanding of God’s presence in the holy place. symbol-making unconsciously transforms objects or forms And Jacob... went toward Haran. And he lighted into images therein endowing them with heightened meaning. upon a certain place, and tamed there all night, Throughout time, religious art and architecture have been because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of shaped by this tension between form/content and symbol. The that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down voluptuous fertility figure or the paintings on the wails in in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a prehistoric caves reveal how our ancestors understood their ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to lives and the symbols they used to appease their gods. As was heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and true in prehistoric times, the interplay between religion and art descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above continues. Therefore, LDS meetinghouses and in particular it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, Mormon steeples are legitimate symbolic expressions of the and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; psychological condition of the modern-day Church. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, THE CHURCH AS THE HOUSE OF GOD Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And ¢ he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! ’A-- HOUSE of God" is metaphorically used by Mor- this is none other but the house of God, and this is the mons to describe their churches and temples. This is a gross gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morn- simplification, for these buildings are actually multi-use cen- ing and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, ters: chapels are houses of worship, administrative centers, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top community centers of social life, as well as houses of God. The of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel. steeples of these buildings serve as the symbolic embodiment (Genesis 28:10-13, 16-19.) SEPTEMBER 1992 PAGE 40 S U N S T O N E 5. Bountiful Tabernacle, Utah 6. Logan 6th Ward, Utah, 1906 7. Salt Lake 21st Ward, 1907 This scripture, so rich in metaphorical imagery, describes thethe example of the Gothic serves best to illustrate this point. holy place as a literal residence or dwelling place of God. TheThe verticality of the Gothic symbolized the tendency to reach ladder or vertical element in its construction as the bridgeinto the spiritual sphere, into the heavens. Gothic architecture between the physical and metaphysical worlds is typical ofwas truly God-centered. religious architecture that is God-centered. Rodin, the French impressionist sculptor, poetically charac- For some religions the building itself is a symbol of divineterized the verticality of the Gothic cathedral by saying: "The reality, for others the shrine or altar is the place for communioncathedral is the scaffolding of heaven. It gathers itself for flight; with God. For some religious groups, the location is significantit rises, then stops the first time to rest on the balustrade of the in terms of a divine visitation or miraculous event in the livesfirst tier; then the construction resumes its skyward flight. It of the people. A sacred building may exist as a stage for ritualstops at the limit of human powers.’’r or it might be a house of prayer. The hopes of the beyond found expression in the increasing Regardless, ideally the church is a place where humanheight of the Gothic cathedral, which seems to set the laws of beings can feel the spirit of God. In the house of God we gravity at defiance. pursue what philosopher William James called a "sense of reality, a feeling of objective presence, a perception of what we may call something there. "5 TOWERS, SPIRES, AND STEEPLES The location or delineation of sacred spaces in buildings THE most obvious vertical element in ecclesiastical ar- reveals what is sacred for a people and where they believe the metaphysical and spiritual power lies. It is here, then, that wechitecture has always been the tower. Originally towers housed must look for what artist Marcel Duchamp describes as the bells to call people to worship and spread news both joyful and ’’6 sad. In times of war, medieval men used towers for defense, as "starting point of the concrete. Whatever the functionsrefuge of in times of danger. Towers stood as marking posts for these buildings, they are testimonies to the sense of awe thattravellers, occasionally served as apartments for priests who people can feel. The buildings may not tell us all we want tocould conveniently say night offices without descending to the know about God, but they reveal much about the people who church below. built them. Architecturally, the tower was the culmination of English Because we are most familiar with Western architecture,Gothic achievement. The revolution in church design which and because it is so clearly reflected in Mormon architecture, marked the closing years of the seventeenth century, was due SEPTEMBER 1992 PAGE 41 S U N S T O N E 8. Indianola, Utah, 1916 9. Society Hill, South Carolina, 1907 10.
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