Denis McNamara

Denis R. McNamara, Ph.D. is an architectural historian specializing in American church architecture.  He is the assistant director at the Liturgical Institute of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary, and serves as a liturgical design consultant. 

Articles by Denis McNamara

Almost Religious: Couturier, LeCorbusier and the Monastery of La Tourette

Swiss-born architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965), better known as “Le Corbusier,” maintained an almost cult-like hold upon the architectural profession of the twentieth century. It was nonetheless a priest, Fr. Marie-Alain Couturier, O.P. (1897-1954), who cleared the way for Le Corbusier to design the Monastery of Sainte-Marie-de-La-Tourette (1957-60) for the Dominican community at Eveux-sur-L’Abresle outside Lyon, in France.

The Spirit of Mediator Dei

Despite the prevailing belief that architectural modernism was the only available option for the modern church, the early twentieth century provides considerable evidence of representational, historically-connected and often beautiful architectural designs responsive to the same principles canonized in the documents of Vatican II.

Lost in Space: Suspicion of Architecture and the New Oratory at Ave Maria University

The debate generated by the recent release of images of the initial proposal for Ave Maria’s new chapel cuts to the heart of larger discussions which have been circling the Catholic architectural debate for almost 50 years now. Can glass and steel be used for a Catholic church?

Bearers of the Heavenly Jerusalem: Vatican II and Development in Church Architecture

When I give presentations in parishes or teach in the classroom, I am often asked many intelligent questions by students, building committee members, architects, pastors, and parishioners. These questions have given me great insight into the needs and desires of the People of God. The questions that follow are among those most frequently asked, and shorter summary answers are provided here for the reader’s convenience.

“Lively Mental Energy”: Thomas Gordon Smith and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary

Though broadcast live on Catholic television, the March 2010 consecration of the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul at the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, NE passed rather quietly in the architectural and ecclesiastical news.

Built Form of Theology: The Natural Sympathies of Catholicism and Classicism

When the early Christians were finally able to build their churches in public, they chose the high-style architectural classicism of the Roman Empire.  Almost every Christian culture, from the Constantinian era forward to the mid-twentieth century, has used some version of classicism to build its churches.  After many decades in the shadows, classicism is appearing once again in civic and ecclesiastical architecture.

A Decade of New Classicism: The Flowering of Traditional Church Architecture

In 2001, the newly-founded Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois, hosted a conference entitled “Building the Church for 2010: Continuity and Renewal in Catholic Liturgical Architecture.”¹ Invited speakers addressed the topics of renewal and tradition in church design, and the firm of Franck, Lohsen, McCrery presented the “Church for 2010,” a hypothetical church design using New Classical architecture.