Skip to content

Course 21 · Lesson 4.1

From house church to basilica: the development of church buildings

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 21 outline

Module 1: The Theology of Worship

  1. What liturgy is: the word, the idea and the debate
  2. Worship in the Old and New Testaments
  3. Praying and believing: how worship shapes doctrine and doctrine shapes worship
  4. Word, sacrament and sign across the traditions

Module 2: How Christian Liturgy Developed

  1. The earliest descriptions: the Didache, Justin Martyr and the early church orders
  2. The liturgical families of East and West
  3. The Reformation and the revision of worship
  4. Liturgical renewal in the twentieth century

Module 3: The Christian Year: Calendars, Feasts and Fasts

  1. Sunday, the week and the hours of the day
  2. Easter, Holy Week and the dispute over the date
  3. Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
  4. Lent, the Orthodox fasting seasons and Protestant approaches to fasting
  5. Saints days and the second cycle of the calendar

Module 4: Sacred Space and Sacred Images

  1. From house church to basilica: the development of church buildings
  2. The meaning of church buildings: altar, table, orientation and the Orthodox and Gothic examples
  3. Icons and the Incarnation: John of Damascus and the Second Council of Nicaea
  4. Images and the Reformation: Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican approaches

Module 5: Material Signs: Incense, Water, Oil and Blessings

  1. Incense: Scripture, temple worship and its use in the churches
  2. Water: baptism, the renewal of baptismal vows and holy water
  3. Oil: anointing of the sick, chrismation, confirmation and ordination
  4. Blessings: what the church means when it blesses a person, a house or an object
  5. Sacraments and sacramentals: the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant vocabulary

Module 6: Popular Piety and Devotional Practice

  1. What popular piety is, and why scholars take it seriously
  2. Pilgrimage, relics, medals and pious objects
  3. The rosary, the Stations of the Cross, litanies and akathists
  4. How the churches have regulated and corrected popular devotion

Module 7: Telling Tradition from Superstition

  1. What the theologians mean by superstition, and why the line is hard to draw
  2. A method: source, date, doctrine, authority and consequence
  3. Case studies: apocryphal legends, magical formulas and invented history
  4. Honesty and respect in judging other people’s devotion

All courses

Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 4.1

What you will learn

  • Describe where the first Christians met and what the archaeology of Dura-Europos shows.
  • Explain how the basilica form came to be used for churches in the fourth century.
  • Outline the later Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic and Reformation building traditions.
  • State what a private person can and cannot do to make a space for prayer.

The big idea

The first Christians met in houses. Only after the legalization of Christianity in the early fourth century did the church build large public buildings, many of them in the form of the Roman basilica, a hall for public business. From these beginnings came the cross-shaped and domed Byzantine churches in the East, the Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals in the West and the plain meetinghouses of many Protestants. Each form reflects what its builders believed about worship, and each tradition today regards its own style as faithful.

Key terms

House church
A Christian community that meets in a private home or a house adapted for worship.
Domus ecclesiae
A Latin phrase meaning house of the church, used by scholars for a house adapted for Christian gatherings.
Basilica
A Roman public hall with a long central space (the nave), side aisles and a rounded end (the apse). Christians adapted it for worship.
Nave
The main body of a church where the congregation gathers.
Apse
A semicircular or rounded end of a church, usually where the altar or the bishop’s chair was placed.
Baptistery
A building or room for baptism.
Meetinghouse
A plain building for the gathering of a congregation, common in Puritan, Quaker and Baptist traditions.

Background

The New Testament shows the church meeting in homes. Paul sends greetings to the church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila (Romans 16:5), and the first believers broke bread from house to house (Acts 2:46). For about the first two hundred years Christians did not usually have buildings built for worship, partly because the church was illegal at times and partly because there was no need.

The most important surviving example is the house church at Dura-Europos in Syria, which dates from around 230 to 256, before the city was destroyed. A private house was altered by removing a wall to make one larger room for gatherings, and another room was set apart as a baptistery, with wall paintings of the Good Shepherd and the healing of the paralytic. It shows that by the mid-third century Christians modified buildings for worship.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The turn to public buildings

After the Edict of Milan in 313, Constantine and other rulers helped the church build large churches. The Lateran Basilica in Rome, begun in the reign of Constantine, and Old St Peter’s, built over the traditional tomb of Peter, were among the first. In Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built beginning in about 326 and dedicated in 335. These buildings gave the church visibility and room for growing numbers, and many were funded by the emperor.

Step 2: Why the basilica

Pagan temples were not suited to Christian worship, since the Roman temple was built to house a god while the people stayed outside. The basilica, by contrast, was a large hall in which many people could gather. Christians used its long nave for the congregation and its apse for the bishop and clergy and the altar. An open court called the atrium often stood in front. The form was practical, and its choice also connected with imperial honors, since the basilica had been used for the emperor’s audience. Scholars debate how far the Christian use was shaped by that connection and how far by the need to hold a large crowd.

Step 3: Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic

In the East, church builders developed the domed church. Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, built under Justinian and dedicated in 537, set a great dome on a square base. Later Byzantine churches were usually smaller and based on a cross within a square, with domes and rich mosaics. In the West, Romanesque churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries used thick walls and rounded arches. In the twelfth century Gothic builders in France developed pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses that allowed taller buildings with large windows of stained glass. Their meaning is considered in the next lesson.

Step 4: After the Reformation

Lutheran churches kept many existing buildings and often kept altars and images. The Reformed churches simplified: they removed altars, images and decoration, and set the pulpit in the center to show the place of the preached word. The Puritans in New England built meetinghouses, plain rooms without altar or sanctuary, because they did not regard a building as holy. Anglican churches kept the structure but moved toward a central pulpit in the eighteenth century, and revived the chancel in the nineteenth. Catholic churches in the Baroque period were built to display the grandeur of the faith and to focus attention on the altar. Quakers met in plain rooms with no pulpit.

Step 5: What can be done alone

Jesus tells his disciples to pray in a room with the door shut (Matthew 6:6), and every tradition values a place of private prayer. A person can make a quiet corner at home, with Scripture, a cross or an icon where the tradition allows it. What a person cannot do alone is consecrate a church, which in Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican practice is done by a bishop. A house gathering of believers is a real church in many Protestant traditions, but the historic churches would say that the sacraments in it depend on a recognized minister. A student should be honest about whether a home arrangement is a place of private prayer or a church.

  1. What does the shape of this building suggest about what happens inside?
  2. Where do the people stand or sit, and where is the leader?
  3. What is at the center: the altar, the pulpit, the font, or none?
  4. Does the tradition teach that the building itself is holy?
  5. Which features came from earlier buildings, and which are new?
  6. What can I do in my own home, and what requires a consecrated space?

Examples

Dura-Europos

At Dura-Europos a house was altered for Christian use around the middle of the third century. A larger room for the assembly and a baptistery with wall paintings show that early Christians took ordinary buildings and adapted them. It remains the best known early example.

A Puritan meetinghouse

A New England meetinghouse had plain walls, a high pulpit and no altar or images. The congregation gathered for hours of preaching and prayer. Its builders said that no place is more holy than another, and that the church is the people.

A basilica church today

A visitor to the church of Santa Sabina in Rome finds a long nave with columns, a wide apse and a wooden door of early date. The visitor sees the type that shaped Western church building for a thousand years.

Different perspectives

Catholic

Churches are dedicated to God and consecrated by a bishop, and are treated with reverence because Christ is present in the tabernacle. The Catechism also says that the church is first of all the assembly of God’s people, so that the building serves them.

Orthodox

The church building is an image of the cosmos and of the heavenly kingdom, with the altar and the icons as the points of entry. It is consecrated and holy, not just a meeting place.

Anglican and Lutheran

These traditions kept many medieval buildings and dedicate and bless them, though neither teaches that a building is holy in itself. Beauty and order in worship are valued.

Reformed

No place is holy in itself. The pulpit is central, and the building is a plain shelter for the gathered people. John 4:21 and Acts 17:24 are often cited.

Free-church and Quaker

The gathering of believers is the church, and many congregations meet in homes, schools or storefronts. Many have no sense of a sacred building but care for places of worship.

Why it matters

The way a church building is arranged shapes how worship is understood. Whether the altar or the pulpit is central, whether people can see the leader, and whether a space is thought to be sacred all follow from belief. Knowing how buildings developed helps a student read a church building as a statement of faith, and guards against the idea that the early church had no places or that Christians always built as they do now.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The first Christians met in catacombs.

Correction: They usually met in houses. The catacombs were burial places, though memorial gatherings might be held there.

Misunderstanding: Constantine invented church buildings.

Correction: Churches existed before him, including the third-century house at Dura-Europos. Constantine’s support led to a large-scale program of public church building.

Misunderstanding: Basilicas were copied from pagan temples.

Correction: They were copied from Roman public halls, not temples. Pagan temples were not designed to hold a congregation inside.

Misunderstanding: Protestants believe church buildings do not matter.

Correction: They differ in their view of holiness of place, but they build and care for places of worship. Many hold that the building is a means to gather the church, not a holy object.

Knowledge check

What does Dura-Europos show?

It shows a house in Syria modified around 230 to 256 to serve as a Christian place of worship, with a large room for the assembly and a separate baptistery with paintings. It is the best known evidence that Christians adapted buildings before the fourth century.

Why did Christians adopt the basilica form?

The basilica was a Roman hall suited to a large gathering, with a nave for the people and an apse for the clergy. Pagan temples did not house a congregation. Scholars debate how much the choice was shaped by the imperial association of the basilica.

How did Reformed and Puritan building differ from Catholic and Orthodox building?

Reformed and Puritan builders removed altars and images, centered the pulpit and built plain meetinghouses, holding that no place is holy in itself. Catholic and Orthodox churches are consecrated spaces with an altar as the focus.

What can a person do alone about a place of prayer?

A person can set aside a quiet place at home and keep Scripture and a simple cross or icon where the tradition allows. Consecrating a church is not done by a private person but, in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican traditions, by a bishop.

Think it through

  1. What difference does it make if a church is a house or a hall?
  2. Is a sacred place a help or a risk to faith, and for whom?
  3. What does the center of a building tell visitors about the faith?
  4. What would you include in a quiet place of prayer at home?

Independent assignment

Read a building

In your own notebook, write 400 to 600 words describing one church building you know or have seen in images. Sketch its plan, mark the nave, the focus of worship and the entrance, and state which tradition built it and why you think it is shaped as it is. Note what you could not determine. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study