How to Read a Church: A Guide to Symbols and Images in Churches and Cathedrals

I was disappointed that the book was not more about the the architecture of the building and the features in the construction, but just means I didn't take the subtitle seriously. The book would have been improved by having photos of the symbols it explains instead of line drawings. The explanations themselves were fine, but nothing special. I give it 4 stars because it does what it covers it's topic thoroughly but without much analysis or panache.

Bought this to prepare for a trip to Italy, hoping to better understand what I was seeing in all those historic churches. This book, however, is centered on churches as places of Christian worship. To quote from the introduction: "Admiring a church for its beauty or history alone is like admiring a Monet for the frame". This is the author's principle theme. As an example, one chapter is devoted to the life of Jesus. In it, he elaborates on 29 different stages of Christ's life that you might see as an image in a church, from the Nativity to The Incredulity of Thomas. Other chapters include The Virgin Mary, Saints, and The Old Testament. The book does provide the needed visual clues to understand what one is seeing, e.g. pictures of St. Lawrence are of a young man with an iron grid and a money bag. However, the piety of the author is the both the book's strength and weakness. Those of the Christian faith may find this a wonderful read. Those of other faiths or none at all may be constantly irritated (as I was) by his writing technique, which treats the Bible as a source of eye-witness history. If you are looking for dispassionate discussion of church imagery, look elsewhere.

I was more than happy with "How to Read a Church". Even if you were raised in the Catholic religion as I was, the symbolism utilized by the church was hardly ever explained or alluded to. After reading the book I felt that I understood far more about churches, faith and the motivation behind the use of the symbols. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has a basic understanding of religion and churches, but is looking for more of the necessary background.I only wish that we had examined a bit more of the material contained in this book, and, had a bit less catechism thrust at us in our childhood religious studies.Richard Taylor proved to be an excellent author. He is tremendously well informed, writes very well and was surprisingly amusing."How to Read a Church" was an absolute delight and will be kept at hand for easy reference.

This could have been a valuable book, talking about aspects of church design, their symbolism, their adoption, their construction, and changes over time.That is not this book.This book is a Jane Goodall-esque “Christians in the Mist” tourbook exploring the “vanished” Christian culture. Sad.

This book gave great insight of why something was where it was in a church. I espcially enjoyed that it was easy to look things up, such as baptismal font, what the difference between an altar and a pulpit was. Very reader friendly.

Okay intro to church symbolism

It is a good book, interesting but not complete. I found it little insufficient. Need be enriched in many facts.

This book was exactly what I wanted to get my mother for Christmas. She went to Europe and when she came back all she talked about were the cathedrals. The photography and stories behind each picture were priceless. Well worth the money!! Loved it.

Useful for researching church history. Little more on, for example, symbolism in shape of fonts, would have been good.

Straight forward and detailed account of the significance of church architecture and artifacts. A useful book for those who want to appreciate what churches mean for Christians.

Good helpful overview.

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