A new article written by Steven Schloeder was published in Sacred Architecture, Spring 2012.  Entitled “Domus Dei, Quae Est Ecclesia Dei Vivi: The Myth of the Domus Ecclesiae,” Schioeder proposes that the 20th century rejection of formal, traditional, and hierarchical churches in favor of more casual and residential scaled buildings had more to do with fashion and cultural shifts than with a rigorous reading of Church history.

The assumption that the early Church in the first three centuries (before the Emancipation of Christianity under Emperor Constantine in 313 AD) had no large, formal and urban scaled buildings but rather worshipped only in residences of the members — the domus ecclesiae or ‘house church’ — requires significant textual evidence to be ignored or discounted.

Schloeder traces the mid-20th century arguments involved in the rejection of historical styles and architectural meaning, shows the problems with the adoption of the term and implications of domus ecclesiae, and recommends the recovery of a fuller sacramental, liturgical, theological and architectural symbol structure as more faithful to the architectural aspirations of Catholicism from the early Church onward.