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Denis McNamara To Lecture on Church Architecture February 18

“Shadow, Image and Reality: Church Architecture as Sacrament of Heaven” is the title of a lecture to be given by Dr. Denis R. McNamara at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 18 in the Robert S. Carey Student Center Performing Arts Center. Admission is free and open to the public.

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Br. Cosmas Wolf, O.S.B.: Monk, Architect, Sculptor, Designer,” McNamara will examine truth and beauty in the theology of church art and architecture. Following the lecture, there will be a reception in The Saint Vincent Gallery where the exhibition is being presented until February 28.

McNamara is a widely-sought lecturer and architectural historian specializing in the theology of liturgical art and architecture, classicism and sacramental aesthetics. He is the assistant director at the Liturgical Institute of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary and serves as a liturgical design consultant.

McNamara earned a bachelor of arts degree in the history of art from Yale University. He also earned a master of historical architecture and a Ph.D. in architectural history from the University of Virginia.

He is the author of Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago (2005), Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy (2009), How to Read Churches: A Crash Course in Ecclesiastical Architecture (2011) and articles and reviews in Arris, Chicago Studies, Communio, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Assembly, Sacred Architecture, Letter and Spirit, and Environment and Art Letter.

His academic specialties include the theology of liturgical art and architecture, classicism and sacramental aesthetics.

He is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians, Society for Catholic Liturgy and the Institute for Classical Architecture.

The lecture is sponsored by the School of Humanities and Fine Arts, the Office of the Assistant to the President for Mission and The Saint Vincent Gallery.