A church, church building, or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD.

Sometimes, the word church is used erroneously to refer to the buildings of other religions, such as mosques and synagogues.Use of the term "The Manichaean Church" , Encyclopædia Britannica"The term church is found, but not specifically defined, in the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The term is not used by all faiths; however, in an attempt to make this publication easy to read, we use it in its generic sense as a place of worship including, for example, mosques and synagogues." , US IRS Tax Guide for Churches & Religious Organizations Church is also used to describe a body or an assembly of Christian believers, while "the Church" may be used to refer to the worldwide Christian religious community as a whole.

In traditional Christian architecture, the plan view of a church often forms a Christian cross with the centre aisle and seating representing the vertical beam and the bema and altar forming the horizontal. The area of the church containing the altar is the chancel. Churches are usually topped with a steeple, which metaphorically directs the minds of the faithful upward to God. Steeples often house a belfry that contains church bells, which call Christians to Christian prayer and worship. Modern churches have a variety of architectural styles and layouts. Some buildings designed for other purposes have been converted to churches, while many original church buildings have been put to other uses. From the 11th to the 14th century, there had been a wave of church construction in Western Europe.

Many churches worldwide are of considerable historical, national, cultural, and architectural significance, with several included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Etymology

The word church is derived from Old English , 'place of assemblage set aside for Christian worship', from the Common Germanic word kirika. This was probably borrowed via Gothic from Ancient Greek , 'the Lord's (house)', from , 'ruler, lord'. in turn comes from the Indo-European root , meaning 'to spread out, to swell' (euphemistically: 'to prevail, to be strong').

The various forms of the cognates to church in various languages reflect the word's linguistic roots in Greek and Proto-Indo-European origins. For instance, in early Germanic languages such as Old High German, the word evolved into kirihha, highlighting its spread through the Christianization of Germanic peoples. This etymological journey illustrates how the concept of a place of Christian worship was linguistically adapted as Christianity expanded across Europe. Additionally, the use of the word in early Christian communities emphasized the association of the building with its dedication to God.

The Greek , 'of the Lord', has been used of houses of Christian worship since , especially in the East, although it was less common in this sense than or .

History

Antiquity

The earliest archeologically identified Christian church is a house church (domus ecclesiae), the Dura-Europos church, founded between 233 AD and 256 AD.

In the second half of the third century AD, the first purpose-built halls for Christian worship (aula ecclesiae) began to be constructed. Although many of these were destroyed early in the next century during the Diocletianic Persecution. Even larger and more elaborate churches began to appear during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great. (Chapter 3)

Medieval times From the 11th through the 14th centuries, a wave of cathedral building and the construction of smaller parish churches occurred across Western Europe. Besides serving as a place of worship, the cathedral or parish church was frequently employed as a general gathering place by the communities in which they were located, hosting such events as guild meetings, banquets, mystery plays, and fairs. Church grounds and buildings were also used for the threshing and storage of grain.

Romanesque architecture Between 1000 and 1200, the Romanesque style became popular across Europe. The Romanesque style is defined by large and bulky edifices typically composed of simple, compact, sparsely decorated geometric structures. Frequent features of the Romanesque church include circular arches, round or octagonal towers, and cushion capitals on pillars. In the early Romanesque era, coffering on the ceiling was fashionable, while later in the same era, groined vaults gained popularity. Interiors widened, and the motifs of sculptures took on more epic traits and themes. Romanesque architects adopted many Roman or early Christian architectural ideas, such as a cruciform ground plan, as that of Angoulême Cathedral, and the basilica system of a nave with a central vessel and side aisles.

Gothic architecture

The Gothic style emerged around 1140 in Île-de-France and subsequently spread throughout Europe. Gothic churches lost the compact qualities of the Romanesque era, and decorations often contained symbolic and allegorical features. The first pointed arches, rib vaults, and buttresses began to appear, all possessing geometric properties that reduced the need for large, rigid walls to ensure structural stability. This also permitted the size of windows to increase, producing brighter and lighter interiors. Nave ceilings rose, and pillars and steeples heightened. Many architects used these developments to push the limits of structural possibility – an inclination that resulted in the collapse of several towers whose designs had unwittingly exceeded the boundaries of soundness. In Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, it became popular to build hall churches, a style in which every vault would be built to the same height.

Gothic cathedrals were lavishly designed, as in the Romanesque era, and many share Romanesque traits. However, several also exhibit unprecedented degrees of detail and complexity in decoration. Notre-Dame de Paris and Reims Cathedral in France, as well as the church of San Francesco d'Assisi in Palermo, Salisbury Cathedral and the wool churches in England, and Santhome Church in Chennai, India, show the elaborate stylings characteristic of Gothic cathedrals.

Some of the most well-known gothic churches remained unfinished for centuries after the style fell out of popularity. One such example is the construction of Cologne Cathedral, which began in 1248, was halted in 1473, and didn't resume until 1842.

Renaissance In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the changes in ethics and society due to the Renaissance and the Reformation also influenced the building of churches. The common style was much like the Gothic style but simplified. The basilica was not the most popular type of church anymore, but instead, hall churches were built. Typical features are columns and classical capitals.

In Protestant churches, where the proclamation of God's Word is of particular importance, the visitor's line of sight is directed towards the pulpit.

Baroque architecture

The Baroque style was first used in Italy around 1575. From there, it spread to the rest of Europe and the European colonies. The building industry increased heavily during the Baroque era. Buildings, even churches, were used to indicate wealth, authority, and influence. The use of forms known from the Renaissance was extremely exaggerated. Domes and capitals were decorated with moulding, and the former stucco sculptures were replaced by fresco paintings on the ceilings. For the first time, churches were seen as one connected work of art, and consistent artistic concepts were developed. Instead of long buildings, more central-plan buildings were created. The sprawling decoration with floral ornamentation and mythological motives lasted until about 1720, in the Rococo era.

The Protestant parishes preferred lateral churches, in which all the visitors could be as close as possible to the pulpit and the altar.

Architecture

A common trait of the architecture of many churches is the shape of a cross (a long central rectangle, with side rectangles and a rectangle in front for the altar space or sanctuary). These churches also often have a dome or other large vaulted space in the interior to represent or draw attention to the heavens. Other common shapes for churches include a circle, to represent eternity, or an octagon or similar star shape, to represent the church's bringing light to the world. Another common feature is the spire, a tall tower at the "west" end of the church or over the crossing.

Another common feature of many Christian churches is the eastwards orientation of the front altar. Often, the altar will not be oriented due east but toward the sunrise. This tradition originated in Byzantium in the fourth century and became prevalent in the West in the eighth and ninth centuries. The old Roman custom of having the altar at the west end and the entrance at the east was sometimes followed as late as the eleventh century, even in areas of northern Europe under Frankish rule, as seen in Petershausen (Constance), Bamberg Cathedral, Augsburg Cathedral, Regensburg Cathedral, and Hildesheim Cathedral.Heinrich Otte, Handbuch der kirchlichen Kunst-Archäologie des deutschen Mittelalters (Leipzig 1868), p. 12

The architecture of evangelical places of worship, such as those of the Baptist and Methodist traditions, are often characterized by their sobriety.Peter W. Williams, Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States, University of Illinois Press, USA, 2000, p. 125Murray Dempster, Byron D. Klaus, Douglas Petersen, The Globalization of Pentecostalism: A Religion Made to Travel, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2011, p. 210 The Latin cross is a well known Christian symbol that can usually be seen on the building of an evangelical church and that identifies the place's belonging.Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South, Volume 2, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 2018, p. 32Anne C. Loveland, Otis B. Wheeler, From Meetinghouse to Megachurch: A Material and Cultural History, University of Missouri Press, USA, 2003, p. 149 There is usually a baptistery at the front of the church (called the chancel in historic traditions) or in a separate room.William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Scarecrow Press, USA, 2009, p. 61Wade Clark Roof, Contemporary American Religion, Volume 1, Macmillan, UK, 2000, p. 49

Types

Basilica

The Latin word basilica was initially used to describe a Roman public building usually located in the forum of a Roman town.The Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art and Architecture (2013 ), p. 117 After the Roman Empire became officially Christian, the term came by extension to refer to a large and influential church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope. The word thus retains two senses today, one architectural and the other ecclesiastical.

Cathedral

A cathedral is a church, usually Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox, housing the seat of a bishop. The word cathedral takes its name from cathedra, or Bishop's Throne (In ). The term is sometimes (improperly) used to refer to any church of great size.

A church with a cathedral function is not necessarily a large building. It might be as small as Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, England, Porvoo Cathedral in Porvoo, Finland, Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh, United States, or Chur Cathedral in Switzerland. However, frequently, the cathedral, along with some of the abbey churches, was the largest building in any region.