Churches Ad Hoc: A Divine Comedy 0966580966, 9780966580969

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Churches ad hoc DIVINE COMEDY A

Herman

Krieger

With a Foreword by Kern

R.

Trembath

Churches ad hoc

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2012

http://www.archive.org/details/churchesadhocOOherm

Churches ad hoc DIVINE COMEDY A

Herman

Krieger

with a foreword by

Kern R.Trembath

PhotoZone

Press

Eugene, Oregon

Churches ad hoc

©

Herman

1998

Krieger

No

All rights reserved.

part of the contents

book may be reproduced by any means

of this

without the written permission of the publisher. Published by

PhotoZone Press PO Box 51024

OR

Eugene, Printed First

in

97405

the United States of America

Edition

Publisher's Cataloging in Publication Data Krieger,

Herman

Churches ad hoc p.

:

a divine

comedy

/

Herman

Krieger.

cm.

ISBN: 0-9665809-6-6 1.

2. 3.

4.

—

Church buildings Photography Church in art. Photography Church buildings Wit and humor, Pictorial.

—

TR659.K7 1998 726.5

98-96488

Book and Cover Design by Peter Holm, Sterling Hill Productions

— Humor. — Social aspects.

FOREWORD Most

not

if

readers will be

all

Most

inside this volume.

many books

of reasons than

the

"amuse"

latter,

The is

one

first

erally?

—

Is it

of

tionable, comic,

The answer,

And

if

you are among

likely.

you

book

a

puns?

—

and

of

will return to

photography?

will

at

know

that

again and again

—

of art

of religious architecture?

of course,

lies

out to be too weak a word.

time you read this book, you

of those that

the future.

amused by what

but for a wider variety

enjoy.

will turn

more

"Beguile" will be

it

will be,

in

more gen-

—

of ques-

times tragic religious architecture? is

"yes."

Hence

and consequent beckoning to regular

its

beguiling nature

revisitation.

Herman Krieger describes himself as a non-practicing Jew who has not been to synagogue since he was 12. Would that all religious education "took" as well as his! The most obvious and, in many ways, most delightful interaction that he will quicken in you

caption and photo.

And most

is

that

between

of the captions will, in turn,

be drawn either directly or indirectly from Jewish and Christian scriptures.

Herman thus

nicely illustrates the

ancient insight, voiced by Ignatius Loyola but universally true, "give

me

a child until he

is

six

Catholic forever." Religious truths, often

and he

will

embodied

but always pointing beyond the text to experience rarely

go away

for

gentle

humor

that

and photo,

this

good. At worst, they hibernate. is

be a

in text itself,

In

the

the conversation between caption

book might

well

awaken hibernating

truths in you as well. Another beguiling level of meaning, therefore:

not,

rather, "Did

this

"Will

Herman intend

The puns

in this

re-awakening happen?" but it?"

book, that

the multi-layered con-

is,

versations between image and caption, are witty.

Dictionary

reminds us

laboriously

speech or writing which consists

1

what the Oxford

this in the widest possible sense,

in

"that

is

mean English

quality

of

the apt association of

thought and expression, calculated to surprise and delight by

its

unexpectedness; the utterance of

brilliant

amusing way." Wit is thus the the author's insight and foresight that

or sparkling things in an

conjunction of opts to use

How

humor

as the conduit to the receiver's mind.

could anything other than

effects of "The

High and the

adjacent, "The Pope's

Answer

wit

better account for the

Lofty," "Littergy,"

to Luther,"

and the

and the "Sign

of

the Crossing?" These are not simply pictures with head-

sermons whose spiritual precision more appropriated (and enjoyed) the more that

ings; indeed, they are is

the

one patiently awaits it. Priests at Notre Dame have been known to be fired for exceeding 10-12 minutes per sermon.

It

was not

until well after 10

minutes, though, that

1

finally

got the point of the sermon entitled "Auto da Fe"

(hint:

look carefully at the car model and then at the

bumper sticker). Jesus could not have been more What this volume ultimately is, then, is

concise. a

book

about what the catholic tradition terms "sacramentality," the insight that God's presence parts of creation,

is

mediated by any and

and hence that God

close, or as far away, as the individual It

is

not that God

is

is

all

permanently as

wishes God to be.

ever far away, though. All that the indi-

vidual can accomplish

is

to recognize, or resist, that per-

manent adjacency. More than this is not given to us to do. Herman's volume shows us how perilously close that

divine adjacency isn't it?

A resent.

Hence,

on a daily

is

all

basis.

Easy to overlook,

the more delightful to acquire.

final illustration of this that

hope you

I

will

not

While embarking from vastly different shores,

Herman and

I

share

much

of our respective journeys.

We

are both graduates of the University of California at Berkeley.

We

same

that

are both avid bicyclists, a habit nurtured at

University.

Computers are the primary "how" by

which we serve our professions and our constituencies.

We

are both

humorous

drawn to the

as the

versally evident.

subtle, the

means by which I

common, and

religion

add one closing picture to

Herman, Kern

R.

for including

me

in

this

The University

of

it.

Theology

of Notre

Dame

but instead sim-

volume. Thank you,

Trembath, Assistant Chairman

The Department

seen as uni-

say this not to elevate myself to his

level of insight, attentiveness, or artistry,

ply to

is

the

INTRODUCTION The genesis

of Churches ad hoc

of a cross that

located

seemed

to rise

was the photograph made up out of a tree. The cross, I

park overlooking Eugene, Oregon, created a

in a

controversy regarding the separation of church and state.

Proponents of the cross called

saw

it

as a religious symbol.

it

a I

war monument. Others titled

the photograph

"Propagation on the Mount." Thus began the series of

captioned photographs with a cross as the unifying element. The series was Gallery

in

first

exhibited at the PhotoZone

Eugene.

was introduced on the Internet in it have appeared in a large Christian, as well as atheist, web sites. Each

Churches ad hoc

1996. Since then, references to

number

of

group seems to find a reflection of their own views

in

the

captioned photographs. Excerpts from the series have

appeared The

places as diverse as the Internet edition of

in

New York

Times, a

band cassette

Methodist church calendar, a rock

page of the Stockholm and a Cornell Law School

cover, the religion

Svenska Dagbladet newspaper,

poster for a national conference on The Constitution and Religion-. I

Theory and Practice.

take photographs to

amuse myself

as well as the

occasional spectator. Exhibiting photographs for mutual

pleasure

is

similar to a

comedian

appreciative audience. But

photography.

Herman

Krieger, 1998

comedy

telling jokes to is

an

more serious than

/

Propagation on the Mount

Church of High Fidelity

St.

Mark

VI

Model

LlTTERGY

The Pope's Answer to Luther

#•

(

»

Society of Feathered Friends

Doves of Color

Far Eastern Orthodox

The High and the Lofty

For

10

Whom

the Bells Toll

Immaculate Delivery

11

Perishioners Meeting Place

12

never for^t •

u f>on

the

Vr >tten

your

*—

you,

Pzltm

my

tends

««me:

.».::;:'-"

Fetal Position

13

Temple Beth Tolliver

14

iisisHUiU|||tsiiiiiHiii

u

When

w.

a !*?:

m

^•*

?fe

:«'/>

*>

t

;

xJ'Vt

"7//

'vnrs

'" v
NESDA*

S^DAY EVENING

A.M.

00 A.M.

6=00 P.M.

**&***« PASTOR DEREK ««.

:

'

'

FARMER

328-2944

EVEN, NG

.

«ua

PASTOR DEREK FARMER phone:

328-2944

A Point of View

St.

Urban Renewal

17

Visitations Expected

18

Follow the Straight and Narrow

19

Roadside Confessional

20

Station of the Cross

21

Church of the Rising Son

22

All Seoul's Church

23

Disestablishment

24

Defender of the Faith

25

Shaker School

26

Easter Prom

27

Try our Fluoridated Baptisms

28

Missal Silo

20

r-^aUtuK MKn*^"*

%

c

irfllfc MORNINC

930

WORSHll' ^ a

AM PM

SsSP

.

EVENING WORSHIP

600

I

vjjjjL

B

Temple of Antenna

30

Waiting for Godot

31

Holy Roller

32

Auto da Fe

33

Our Lady of

34

Hell's Angels

No

Opiate for the Masses

35

Carpal Deum

^>

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah

-

California Gothic

38

Signs of the Times

3Q

******* t SlNO QUA NON

40

Tao Cross

41

Getting Their Acts Together

42

Palm Sunday

43

First

44

Church of Salem

Christopher Wren House

4S

Unisextarian

46

Young

Zionist

47

Under the Tree of Heaven

4«

'*-"

^..OHK,

_

SELF-GUIDED TOURS BEGIN IN GIFT SHOP-

Follow the Wise Men

""

Telecommunion

50

The Light from Above

51

tuess

•^v-

HSIim

Sermon on the Mount

^2

Angus

Dei

53

Half-creed

54

Enforced by Divine Power

55

Halo Mary

r :

Arch Angels

57

Library of Congregation

58

Not for Mass Consumption

59

Mass Transportation

60

Watchtower

61

1

q^jl 1 ff fl

* 1

1 £/>-

'

1

r

.

d

HHBo^ ^

lit

Plri

._,

.'At

mam ;/

-

»

-~-

-M-ntiiiMirM

Faith Healing

62

.

k-6ti*«-'-'

—-

Sound Doctrine

63

CryptoCoptic

64

ICONE

65