One does not necessarily expect to hear the language of warfare coming from the mouth of Duncan Stroik while discussing sacred architecture.
Bespectacled and bow-tied, the renowned church architect cuts the figure of the Yale-educated professor he is far more than any kind of combatant. And the 12th-floor office of his architecture firm in downtown South Bend, Indiana — covered in sun-dappled blueprints, portraits of iconic churches, and plasters of Greek columns — seems more like a retreat to Plato’s realm of the forms than any kind of arsenal.
And yet, the 63-year-old Stroik sees the effort to promote traditional forms of church architecture, a movement that he’s been at the fore of for decades, as a fight of epic significance: of the right understanding of worship against the wrong one, of beauty against mere utility, and of artistic humility against self-aggrandizing pride.
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