The Mother of the Modern Cathedrals.

Here's the original bridge connecting colosseums and cathedrals.

Who's to say the experience was so different for the individuals and the crowds?

Here are the Cathedrals.

A local temple in South Africa.

In a recent journal entry I asked the question, more or less rhetorically, about the artistic--specifically architectural--contributions of atheists through the ages.

I had in mind some way of pointing out that religions of the world have left behind what we now consider world treasures, from Stonehenge to the temples of Cambodia to the cathedrals of western Europe. Yet there are no such monuments, no is such cultural legacy, created in honor of atheism.

Continuing to ponder that idea, in creating a recent posting about today's non-theistic religions I realized that in fact we do have cathedrals, temples, monuments created in their honor.

We call them stadiums.

The comparison is not as far-fetched as might initially seem. Requiring vast sums that are paid by the masses, venues for periodic worship services, the focus of community identity and loyalty, these massive structures bear uncanny resemblance to more formally recognized religious edifices. Take a look, for instance, at this baseball stadium in Korea.

Natural light.

Compare it to the widely known Crystal Cathedral, built in the 1950s in Garden Grove, California, and featured in weekly televised worship services for decades.

Heavenly Light.

Once the thought came to me, I began looking at sports arenas in a different light. Here's Wembley Stadium, in England, home court to fans of one team of the most popular communal event on the planet, soccer.

Note the open dome, allowing contact with the Cosmos.

In Dallas, Texas, the Cowboys host their congregants in a structure that calls to mind the speculation that worshipers are actually communing on a inter-planetary level.

Close encounters.

Many of the non-theistic temples feature spectacular domes. Here's Kiev, Russia.

A mosque for soccer fans.

The design of many of today's stadiums emphasize the central place of worship in the life of the community. Here's the Longgang Stadium, in the People's Republic of China.

Evoking another level of existence, even before entering.

In common with all houses of worship, stadiums support, encourage, even command the entrants to put all earthly concerns aside while they are participating in communal activities. Who can doubt there are non-ordinary levels of consciousness within their hallowed walls?

Where are the Cathedrals?

23-year-old photographer Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganji shares his images of mosques.

There's a growing movement of what are being called militant atheists, people whose primary method for establishing the credibility of their belief systems amounts to bashing others with more traditional religious beliefs. "Rational," they call themselves.

I often wonder: where are the temples,the cathedrals, the mosques the atheists have built through the ages of humankind? What cultural legacy has been produced in their names?

The Mission, a film of Beauty and Theology.

This is an epic film, unsurpassed cinematography, archetypal musical themes, powerfully charismatic people, in a slice of life telling of the exploration, exploitation and settling of the Americas by the Europeans.
















I never stopped to think that in this film, the Mission undertaken in the middle of the wildest of South American forests was the building of a cathedral. With the resources and the immense complexity of such an undertaking amidst a native population, clearly this was seen as the essential task of missionary work.



This was the pattern for the Catholic Church throughout much of its history, as I understand it. Preaching the gospel as they understood it took place within the context of the building of a cathedral. The cathedral was all-important. Historic maps of Italy in the Vatican Museum show scattered hilltop villages, each with its own cathedral at its center.

In Protestantism the place of worship may be an abandoned warehouse, a neighbor's house, a storefront. Simplicity and humility are the order of the day. My little mountain church is typical, Nederland Community Presbyterian Church.



In the world of the Catholic Church the place of worship is the very center of the community life, grand and eloquent in its statement, built for the ages as a tribute to a powerful God. In even the simplest of small-town church buildings, architectural and aesthetic beauty are primary.

In the world of Protestantism, the worship space is incidental. Is it correct to say that in the world of Catholicism the cathedral is of prime importance?


With changing membership and attendance patterns in Protestantism, I've been present in conversations, serious considerations, about the advisability of maintaining large (read: expensive) church facilities. Something important is being omitted in these conversations.

Let your Light so shine.

The Supreme, impersonal and transcendental Self shines through the particular, personal, individual self in a beautiful and unique way. It is like the sun shining through a particular piece of stained glass. Each one glows and transmits the light of the sun like no other can possibly ever do.

Francis Bennett

April 2014

Catholic Transcendentalism.

March 2013.

Max Weber, one of the fathers of religious sociology, contrasted the transcendental feelings enjoyed by Catholic mass-goers with the Protestant obsession with behaviour. 

 Architecture supports purposes.

We create a world, then the world creates us.