Things get better – or should do – as they serve their time and benefit from experience. A Ford model T was in its day the best car available. A King or Castle type pacific locomotive could hardly be beaten unless there was a Mallard designer around. The Great Eastern was for a short while the best vessel available to cross the north Atlantic.
Things also get different applications. The Great Eastern proved to be better at carrying freight or cables than passengers. Internal combustion engines get more powerful and smaller at the same time. Computers were the same.
Aberrations occur. Most of our inventions serve more than one purpose. Big ships in the thirties took people across the Atlantic in a few days. The race for the blue riband involved the Queen Mary and the Normandie. The arrival of the 747 sounded the death-knell. But people still continued to go to sea. The north Atlantic run changed into a sea voyage that had nothing to do with going anywhere. Instead, the means became the end. People went for a cruise. The purpose is the pleasure of a hotel on the move.
The movement of freight has become detached from the movement of people. As a result we have container-ships. These are vessels serving economic ends, taking huge amounts of freight across the globe. They are an updated form of wheel-barrow.
Means and ends: they merge, The auto industry is a good example. It builds cars. They are not merely vehicles that carry people. They are high-performance machines that achieve fast times; they are machines that cope with rough terrain. They are glamorous accessories. They have become ends in their own right. Much the same is true of church buildings. They may have been designed and built for a purpose – worship. They may have retained that end. They may also have been degraded and become a means rather than an end.
CHURCH DESIGN
England has been well served by its church architects. Wren, Gibbs, Bodley, Pearson, Street have lefts an imprint all over the country. Some have designed not only churches but other public structures. Gilbert Scott designed St Pancras station as well as hundreds of parish churches. He followed in the footsteps of another great designer – Christopher Wren.
If you have a comment on this post please send an email to Revd John King at johnc.king@talktalk.net Edited extracts may be published. To forward this to a friend click on the chain icon below.