Submission Type
Article
Course Number
ARCH 3112
Course Title
Architecture Culture II
Professor Name
Dr. Marietta Monaghan
Semester of Creation
7-15-2021
Description of Work
Seating within public areas regarding orature, such as a theater or concert hall, has been a necessity since such structures were created. It allows the audience to relax, to a degree, and take in the oral performance happening before them, without the distractions of movement around them, save for the occasional emergency. Therefore, one would be inclined to assume that since churches certainly fall under the “Oral Presentation” banner, it would make sense that they have always had seating for the public, right? This assumption, surprisingly, could not be further from the truth. In fact, “church seating did not even originate within Catholicism but rather came upon with the Protestant Reformation” (Kosloski). In fact, for most of Church history, worshipers (referred to as the Congregation in later times) “stood during the celebration of Mass; there did exist a few scattered benches for the elderly, but the nave of the church was usually completely empty of places to sit” (Kosloski).
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