Much modern church architecture says little, the walls teach nothing, and the faithful sit in a space that could just as easily host a lecture, a concert, or a town meeting. Art historian and author Dr. Elizabeth Lev has spent decades teaching celebrities, pilgrims, students, and sceptics alike how to ‘read’ churches in the way previous generations once did instinctively. “What has been lost,” Dr. Lev says, “is that overwhelming sense of awe people once felt when they entered places such as Chartres, St Peter’s in Rome, or San Vitale in Ravenna. Those spaces ignited the Catholic imagination. . . . We cannot put four walls around heaven, and we cannot depict the ineffable, but great Catholic art and architecture help open that door.”
