Building on a Vision: An Analysis of 103 Years of Ideological and Material Development of the University Avenue Church of Christ

I take a multifaceted approach to addressing the following overarching research question: How does the 103-year-old University Avenue Church of Christ come to function as it does in the present day? To address this question, I analyze tow areas of the church--its ideological and material makeup--in order to show how certain factors shape the church. Part one of this paper deals with the church's ideological development through a presentation of primary sources taken largely from church archives which describe the work of the church, its long and short-term 'vision' for the church coupled with statements about its own identity and doctrinal beliefs. These sources help explain how and why the church is the was it is today. Part Two of this paper deals with the church's material development. Analysis of images and firsthand accounts of the buildings UA has worshiped in helps get an idea of what the church wants to present to the outside world aesthetically but also in iconographic associations that will inevitably be made due to certain choices about what appears materially inside and outside the building.