In 1957 the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal William Godfrey, wrote in Catholic Building Review, “It is said that we must build for our own time. True: but our own time can accept a lack of decorum which is not according to the mind of the Church. The old should not be set aside simply because it is old. The heritage of sacred art bequeathed by our forbears is precious. The barn-like church has nothing sacred or symbolic to commend it. It does not lift the mind to God” (17). Yet by 1975 it seemed that modernist, functional-looking architecture had won the day. This book by Robert Proctor, a professor of Architectural History and Theory at the University of Bath, is perhaps the finest study to date on how the Catholic Church came to embrace the modern movement in postwar Britain.

According to Proctor, the first reason for Modernism's success was its acceptance and promotion by priests and the Catholic hierarchy. Interestingly, he hints that it was not always so well received by the person in the pew. Proctor features Archbishop George Beck as a leader in the rush towards modernization. Liverpool Cathedral, derogatorily called “Paddy's Wigwam,” was Archbishop Beck's magnum opus, finished in 1967 (“Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral named one of world's ugliest buildings by CNN (VOTE),” Liverpool Echo, January 14, 2012).

A second major reason for Modernism's success was the architectural profession, whose younger members were committed to abstraction, modern materials, and a functionalist ideology, as promoted in schools of architecture and architectural journals. Though not well known in the U.S., the most important architects included Gerard Goalen, Burles and Newton, Weightman and Bullen, as well as Gillespie, Kidd and Coia. Though not central to the book's theme, Proctor points out that modernism was not the only game in town, and British Catholics continued to hire traditional architects such as H.S. Goodhart-Rendel, Giles Gilbert Scott, Adrian Gilbert Scott, Sandy and Norris, and F.X. Velarde to build churches up through the mid 1960's. Looking back on the work of these traditionalists today, one sees the influence of modernist art and architecture, including an abstraction of traditional forms, floating artwork, and a general severity of form.

Thirdly, the Catholic Church and its architects followed secular trends in order to be seen as contemporary, British, and relevant. After World War II, many public buildings in the U.K. took on the factory aesthetic for reasons such as time, money and the need to create buildings that factory workers would appreciate. The idea that a factory worker would like to return at the end of the day to a factory—like house, and worship on Sunday in an industrial—looking shed, could seem rather patronizing and out of touch today.

Fourth, along with taking their cues from secular architecture, Catholic churches were also influenced by Anglican church architecture, such as the controversial rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral in a modernist style from 1950–1962. In addition, clergy and architects looked to France and Germany at churches that were considered more up to date, such as those by Perret, Le Corbusier, Schwarz, Bohm, and others.

Finally, the Liturgical Movement of the twentieth century advocated a liturgical-functionalism for church architecture to the exclusion of all other uses and meanings besides what was strictly necessary for the liturgy. In order to promote active participation by the faithful, the Liturgical Movement and the architects associated with it in the New Churches Research Group (NCRG) argued for free standing altars, no side chapels, eliminating artwork because it was seen as distracting, minimizing the distinction of the sanctuary, and the removal of the tabernacle into a separate chapel.

Throughout the development of modernist church architecture one sees a strong tendency towards experimentation and a rejection of “centuries of precedents for church architecture” (6). Architects and clergy advocated starting from “first principles,” which seemed like a scientific rationale for creating novel structures and ignoring Canon Law. In recent decades, there has been a reappraisal of the postwar embrace of modern architecture and a grassroots movement to build timeless churches. To understand how one of the most prolific periods of church building in the world's history produced so few noteworthy structures there is no better text than Proctor's Building the Modern Church.