Look around the town you are in. Every building you see is a part of architecture. Each and every building was made and thought of by someone and had to do with what that person believes in. In order to bring in the influencing factor of existentialism, we must know what that means. Existentialism is “in the broader sense is a 20th century philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world… a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility.” (Existentialism) That being said, there are two main pieces of architecture and religion that I will be comparing and contrasting to each other that detail the change in the meaning influenced by existentialism being a Catholic Church and a Synagogue.
When looking at the Catholic Church and its architecture it has many things that are apart from the Jewish Synagogue. The Catholic Church is run by a central authority figure with a hierarchical type of system in check. The pope and a diocese that is local must authorize the building of a new church before one can even be built. When it comes to learning in a Catholic Church, the religious studying is completed in gatherings instead of by themselves. In a Catholic Church, they follow all 7 sacraments including baptism, confirmation, holy orders, anointing of the sick, Eucharist, marriage ceremonies, and reconciliation. In every single Catholic Church, there is a large cross inside and outside of the church. Along with the crosses, there are also flowers that are very common in these churches. A huge part of Catholic churches is also the stained-glass windows which you will find in every single Catholic Church. (Lee 2017) Now looking at their beliefs, there are some parts that agree with Existentialism and some parts that don’t. The Catholics completely agree with the part of Existentialism that has to do with freedom and choice, how we make our own meaning in our lives, the questioning of humans existing, just taking the existence, and believing that we are totally free and have to take responsibilities for our own actions. They disagree with determinism so it goes well with the existentialism point that they just completely reject it. The only part of Existentialism that Catholics completely disagree with is that there is no god because Catholics believe that there is a god. (Arakal 2016)
When looking at the Jewish Synagogue and its architecture, it has many things that are apart from the Catholic Church. For the most part, every single synagogue is run by completely different community groups. These buildings are help funded by an overall community of Jewish people, but it is run by a director board or committee that run the whole synagogue and makes sure everything is run smoothly. Unlike the catholic church with a priest, the synagogue has a rabbi and a chazzan. A synagogue is not only a place for the community to come together and worship, but it also houses study. In most of them it comes with a library that is filled with Jewish texts that people use for studying by themselves. Unlike the Catholic Church sacraments, the Jewish Synagogues only take part in a different kind of marriage ceremony. All synagogues have some sort of ark piece that holds a Torah. In every single Jewish Synagogue around the world, every ark is facing Jerusalem. Also in every single Synagogue, there is an eternal light which is thought to represent the keen watching of eternal god. (Lee 2017) Existentialism has had very small impact of a Jewish life, however there are still some things that they agree with like freedom of choice. They also disagree with existentialism that there isn’t a higher thing like a god because they believe in one. (Religion 1960)
When comparing the Catholic Church and the Jewish Synagogue, there are very few similarities. They are both places of praying or worshiping to some sort of god or higher being. Also, both of these building home their own religion and its community. In example, the Catholic Church houses Catholics while the Jewish Synagogue houses Jewish people. They both give back to the community in some way by giving to the poor and needy. In a catholic church, the main authority has the responsibility to implement community involvement and is purely responsible for gathering the items that are given to the poor. This is because lone churches that are by themselves don’t have much control through the money aspect in the churches. In a Jewish Synagogue, they can also be seen, as I would call it, a good-will because they gather and give out the resources back to the needy in the community as an individual building rather than having to be over looked by the head like in a Catholic Church.
In conclusion, both the Catholic Church and the Jewish Synagogue have influenced the change in medium from Existentialism for many reasons. As time passes and time goes on, the Catholics have taken the beliefs of existentialism and the beliefs of their own and found what they agree with as I stated earlier and have merged it into making their people agree with some aspects of it letting the theory continue to grow in their culture and religion. Existentialism has impacted the being of a self and how it interacts with churches and people in general.
Works Cited
Arakal, Crowly Mathew. “What Do Catholics Think about the Existential Philosophy?” Quora, 22 June 2016, www.quora.com/What-do-Catholics-think-about-the-Existential-philosophy.
“Existentialism.” AllAboutPhilosophy.org, www.allaboutphilosophy.org/existentialism.htm.
Lee, Michelle. “Difference Between the Catholic Church & the Jewish Synagogue.” Synonym, 31 Mar. 2017, classroom.synonym.com/difference-between-catholic-church-jewish-synagogue-5479.html.
“Religion: Existentialism & the Jews.” Time, Time Inc., 8 Aug. 1960, content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,869754,00.html.