A humorous look at churches in America by photgrapher Herman Krieger with a foreword by Kern Trembath, Assistant Chairma
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English Pages 86 [100] Year 1998
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
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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
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Pzltm
my
tends
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Fetal Position
13
Temple Beth Tolliver
14
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A.M.
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6=00 P.M.
**&***« PASTOR DEREK ««.
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FARMER
328-2944
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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
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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«
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^..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
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Faith Healing
62
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Sound Doctrine
63
CryptoCoptic
64
ICONE
65