Jana Černocká

The Riverside Church in New York: God, the Middle Ages and the Capital

The present article examines the Riverside Church in New York, built between 1926 and 1930 as an interdenominational temple administered by Northern Baptist Convention. Financed by American wealthy financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr., the edifice constitutes a distinctive amalgamation of neomedieval forms and modern construction methodologies, integrating conventional themes of Christian iconography and secular topics in an endeavor to establish a novel multicultural and multi-faith canon. With Riverside Church as its case study, the present article seeks to reflect upon the use and misuse of neo-medieval forms in the service of what is termed ‘Protestant modernism’: a phenomenon advancing the vision of constructing a new American society on renewed religious (Protestant) foundations, whose material manifestations were financed from the position of contemporary economic elites. In the first part of the text, the church’s iconography is examined in pursuit to uncover the ideological motivations of the church’s founders and the broader background as part of which they are operating. While the church’s iconography is presented as reflecting Rockefeller’s messianic visions for modern society, its formal and functional properties are demonstrated as intricately linked to the coeval Protestant church building trends, and, as argued in the latter half of the article, intertwined with the contemporary medievalizing theories on church architecture.

Author's email:

jana.cernocka@phil.muni.cz

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54759/ART-2025-0309



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