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William Whyte, Unlocking the Church: The lost secrets of Victorian sacred space Published by Oxford University Press Here’s the last of my Christmas book reviews: an illuminating study of 19th-century church buildings that’s also a good read… William Whyte’s new book offers a revealing way of looking at Victorian churches, one that highlights neither the battle between architectural styles nor the distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ church. Whyte instead concentrates on the ways the Victorians understood and experienced church buildings, stressing in particular two key ideas – the church as a symbolic building that can be ‘read’ and the idea that church architecture can shape people’s emotions. Both of these themes are given a new emphasis in the 19th century and they cross theological boundaries: they are expressed by High churchmen and Evangelicals, by Catholics, and even by nonconformists. These ideas are in sharp contrast to those of the Georgian period, in which churches lacked r...