Coventry Cathedral: Art and Architecture in Post-War Britain

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 1998 by McClain, Frank M

Coventry Cathedral: Art and Architecture in Post-War Britain. By Louis,e Campbell. Clarendon Studies in the History of Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. xviii 287 pp. $140.00 (cloth).

Louise Campbell's study is a masterful retelling of the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. Her book contains a wealth of photographs and drawings. There is an elegantly presented text, carefully researched and documented. This is a beautiful work but its place is not on a coffee table. It should be reuired reading for anyone involved in the planning of an important civic structure. The intricate (Byzantine?) relationship between Church and State, the clash of traditional and contemporary theological and liturgical points l)f view, questions of aesthetic taste all are explored.

Coventry Cathedral is probably the best-known and best-loved religious building of the twentieth century. It was to be a memorial to those who had fallen during the war, a symbol of reconciliation, a statement of the resurgence of a vital industrial city and of a Britain arising phoenix-like from the ashes of the Blitz. The cathedral, in spite of its champions, has not been without its detractors. Popular and greatly beloved by overseas visitors to Britain, critics nearer to home have often expressed mixed feelings. It has even been judged the "worst setback to English architecture for a very long time."

As if continuing the fires of the night of its destruction, flames of controversy surrounded the structure from the first decision to rebuild. Was it to be a replica of the old cathedral? Was it to be traditional in character or was it to be influenced by the contemporary liturgical movement? The City Council was set against the Cathedral Council, the Bishop against the Provost. T]le Clergy were divided among themselves. Architects and artists could not come to an agreement. It is remarkable that the project was able to be brought to a conclusion at all. "Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity" was certainly not the psalm to catch the spirit of the reconstruction.

Was there a need to rebuild the cathedral at all? Did it not suggest an age of faith in what was clearly an age of non-belief? Should the old cathedral simply be restored as it was? Local opinion favored a replica. What was the purpose of a cathedral? Was it little more than a secular space for large ceremonial gatherings, civic functions, and a place for the presentation of music and drama? Liturgical revival was still a dream in the minds of certain fon,vard-looking clerk,. That the cathedral might be a space for the celebration of the Eucharist seemed to many to be a novel idea. The Reconstruction Committee and the Cathedral Council insisted that the altar be placed in the traditional position at the east end but the question of a central position was strongly defended. It is felt that the debate at Coventry made possible the building of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool with its Holy Table surrounded by the worshiping community.

On page 100, there is a delicious photograph of the architect holding working drawings of the cathedral. He is wearing an ordinary suit and is in serious conversation with the provost-resplendent in "gaiters"! Coventry marks the passage from a past, still honored, to a newer age. In the bold, even triumphant mass of the overall traditional building, the best offerings of twentieth-century artists are set like jewels. Graham Sutherland's tapestry, Sir Jacob Epstein's "Saint Michael Slaying the Evil One," the Gethsemane Chapel make clear the Christian theme of sacrifice and resurrection. And the Cathedral has found its ministry, to industy, to ecumenical understanding in the Chapel of Unity, and as a center of reconciliation drawing young and old together from the entire international community.