Visual Communion

The Art, Architecture & Craft of the Eucharist

Laura Moffatt, Christopher Irvine (eds)

Pages: approx. xviii + 222 p.
Size:216 x 280 mm
Illustrations:90 col.

Language(s):English
Publication Year:2026

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ISBN: 978-2-503-60470-1
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A rich resource for understanding the art and architecture of the Eucharist and an inspiration for 21st-century Christianliturgy.

Subject(s)

BIO

Laura Moffatt is director of Art and Christianity and editor of its quarterly journal. As such she spearheaded the Visual Communion symposia and has organised the biennial A+C Book Award since 2003. She previously co-edited Contemporary Art in British Churches and worked at Art Monthly. She has written for a number of art and architecture magazines and is co-author of Contemporary Church Architecture.

Christopher Irvine is a former trustee of Art and Christianity, and assisted Laura Moffat is shaping the Visual Communion Symposia. He is an Honorary Teaching Fellow of St Augustine's College of Theology and a founder member of the Mirfield Liturgical Institute. His publications include: The Cross and Creation in Christian Liturgy and Art and more recently has contributed to Shaping the Assembly: How our Buildings form us in Worship and the T&T Cark Handbook of the Doctrine of Creation.

Summary

The Eucharist is, and always has been, at the heart of Christian worship. The celebration of the Eucharist, or the Communion as it is more commonly called, unfolds a drama of faith and transformation. This drama is also made tangible by the Eucharist’s visual and material setting. Drawing on recent scholarship in theology and the arts on the performance and setting of the Eucharist, this volume arises out of an innovative series of events and lectures organised by Art and Christianity in 2019. With an introduction by Professor Ben Quash, it also includes shorter illustrated texts celebrating the diversity and achievement of British artists and craftspeople in the design of liturgical objects and sacred spaces. From the Continental Reformation and recusant Catholicism, to the post-war Liturgical Movement and British contemporary art, this book seeks to highlight some of the most significant periods of modern Christian history through the lens of material culture and sacramental theology.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface

Introduction
Ben Quash

Part I: Setting, Rite, and Material Culture

Staging the Sacrifice: The Eucharist in Image and Metaphor
Rowan Williams
Incarnate Communion: Feminist Re-Viewings of Mary and the Eucharist
Karen O’Donnell
Seeing the Body of Christ: Art and the Eucharist in the German Reformation
Bridget Heal
The Blood of Jesus
David Grumett
The Brightness of Returning Glory’: Pugin and the Revival of Catholic Art
Rosemary Hill
Table Talk: Speaking of the Place and Purpose of the Altar
Christopher Irvine
The Making of an Altar
Luke Hughes
‘Fabriking’ Faith: Textiles for Transformation
Novelette-Aldoni Stewart
George Pace: Designing Sanctuaries to Renew Eucharistic Celebration
Judi Loach
Vulnerability and Faith: Geoffrey Clarke’s High Altar Set for Coventry Cathedral
Louise Campbell
Gothic Shadows, Little Lights and Big Neon: Rethinking the Contemporary Altarpiece
Deborah Lewer
Whiteness and the Aesthetics of the Eucharist
J. A . Robinson-Brown
The Visual Eucharist
Jessica Martin

Part II: Art, Architecture and Craft in Focus

Jean Lurçat, Creation, 1963; Sara Mark, LAVANT, 2018: Chapel of the Ascension, University of Chichester
Sheona Beaumont
Rudolf Schwarz and Han Schwippert, Fronleichnamskirche, 1930 Aachen
Rey Conquer
Geoffrey Clarke and Louis Osman, Reordering including aumbry, altar frontals, candlesticks and altar cross, 1957 St James, Shere
Diana Coulter
John Newling Chatham Vines, 2004–6 St John, Chatham
Richard Davey
Ceri Richards, The Supper at Emmaus, 1958 The Chapel of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Christopher Irvine
Katy Armes, NoThing, 2011, St John the Baptist Church, Hellington, Norfolk
Jonathan Koestlé-Cate
Erich Erving, Chasuble for Extraordinary Time (work in progress), 2021–22
Ayla Lepine
Beryl Dean, Three Frontals, 1965 and 1969, King’s Lynn Minster
Laura Moffatt
Miriam Hanid, Chalice and paten, 2018; Rod Kelly, Candlesticks, 2018, Chapel of Our Lady, Eton College
Tessa Murdoch
Mark Dean, Color Motet, Ascension to Pentecost, 1–9 June 2019 St Augustine’s Church, Hammersmith, London
Lucy Newman Cleeve
Evelyn Ross, Set of vestments, 1995–98 Winchester Cathedral
Catherine Ogle
Chris Knight, Tinsley Towers Chalice and Ciborium, 2007 Sheffield Cathedral
Abi Thompson
The Crucifixion Image at the Te Igitur in the Sacramentary of Gellone, 780–800
Arthur Westwell

Contributors
Bibliography
Index