In 1854, John Henry Newman was installed as rector of the first Catholic university in the British Isles, established in Dublin. University Church (1855–6) physically embodied the concept behind this unprecedented university – the provision of an erudite Catholic alternative to post-Enlightenment secularism and Protestant hegemony – through a style-based analogy to the Early Church. The Early Christian revival style of the church – informed by Roman and Byzantine basilicas – was a carefully considered articulation that pronounced a brighter future for Catholics in the face of social, political and religious flux. Designed by John Hungerford Pollen, the church was conversant with wider utopian uses of Early Christian and Byzantine revival styles in nineteenth-century Europe, and it constitutes one of the first iterations of such revivalist architectures in the British Isles.
Situating the structure in the context of both early English architectural histories and Pollen’s own writings, Bhalla demonstrates that University Church evidences a more positive intellectual engagement with the achievements of Byzantine architecture in the nineteenth century than is currently acknowledged, one that did not endorse an Orientalist agenda, but which pertained to the understood Roman origin and Early Christian identity of ‘Byzantium’. The church meaningfully employed features regarded as distinguishing indicators of the Byzantine style in a basilica understood by its architect as the form that provided continuity between Roman and Byzantine design. This architectural innovation expressed continuity from the Early Church, providing what Newman described as a ‘living architecture’ that would serve the needs of the present. University Church will be discussed as an embodiment of Newman’s understanding of Christian revelation and the continuity of the Church which informed his vision for both the mission of the university and its church.
Dr Bhalla's research focuses on the lived experience and theology of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Byzantine revival imagery and architecture. She is the author of Experiencing the Last Judgement (Routledge, 2021) and Newman University Church, Dublin: Architectural Revivalism in the British Isles and the Authority of Form (UCL Press, 2024).
