Book Series Arts and the Sacred, vol. 10

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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A rich resource for understanding the art and architecture of the Eucharist and an inspiration for 21st-century Christian liturgy.

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

Preface

Introduction

Part I: Setting, Rite, and Material Culture

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

Part II: Art, Architecture and Craft in Focus

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

Bibliography
Index

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