ANNUAL DAMASUS WINZEN LECTURE
SUNDAY, APRIL 26th, 2015
St Joseph Lounge following Mass
Incarnation and Transfiguration:
Rediscovering the Iconic Nature of Church Buildings
Dr. Dennis R. McNamara Ph.D. is Associate Director and Assistant Professor at the Liturgical Institute of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, a graduate program in Liturgical Studies founded by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago in the year 2000, where he teaches courses on the Liturgical Movement, Liturgical Art and Architecture, Liturgical Inculturation and Sacramental Aesthetics. He holds a BA in the History of Art from Yale University and a PhD in Architectural History from the University of Virginia.
Dr. McNamara makes a specialty of bridging the gap between the Church’s great artistic tradition and the documents of the Second Vatican Council. He has also done groundbreaking research on the sacramental meaning of the classical architectural tradition.
Dr. McNamara is the author of numerous articles on art and architecture in Communio, Rite, Chicago Studies, Sacred Architecture, Environment and Art Letter, Assembly, The Priest, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Sacred Architecture, Letter and Spirit, The Classicist and Arris: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.
His book Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago (Liturgy Training Publications, 2005) appeared on the Catholic Bestseller List and won a Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Booksellers Association as well as two first place awards from Midwest Independent Publishers Association. His 2009 book Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy (Hillenbrand Books), was honored in two categories by the Catholic Press Association and his newest title, How to read Churches: A Crash Course in Christian Architecture (Rizzoli, 2011) and was published in English, German, Spanish, Romanian, Italian, and French.
