Bower Hill Presbyterian Church, Mt. Lebanon

         

         I actually could have a separate blog devoted specifically to religious architecture.  I love it so much.  All architecture interests me, but especially churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples.  I like the way they use space and light to evoke feelings of the Numinous.  But alas, I'd never have time for two blogs; I don't even have time for one.  Besides, I'd need a real camera for an architectural blog.  This is the Bower Hill Presbyterian Church in Mount Lebanon, one of the loveliest churches in a city that is filled with them.  I don't care what you believe about Ultimate Concerns--things like life, death, meaning, and goodness--you could become a calmer and a wiser person just by spending an hour each week surrounded by this kind of beauty.  Beauty is a healing balm in our lives, which are spent largely beneath the rude glare of fluorescent bulbs and in windowless cubicles.  Beauty can restore our spirits, us poor inhabitants of no-frills Suburbia.  We need far more trees, and parks, and poetry, and art, and high ceilings than we are getting...  
        Speaking of churches, we returned recently from a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, where the Park Service has preserved a few Appalachian cabins and houses of worship. Here are some photos.  And did I ever publish photos of the Texas Hill Country, where I spent a week last November?  It just happens to have some churchiness about it, too.  Photos here.