Churches, by Judith Dupré, a coffee table book that celebrates religious edifices around the world (HarperCollins, 168 pages, $35). Churches contains more than 200 spectacular color and black and white images. The photos range from the oldest-known view of Trinity Church at the top of Wall Street to the first satellite photograph of St. Peter’s in Rome taken 400 miles above the earth.

“Unique among building types,” Dupré writes, “churches have a singular function: to provide human beings with a space in which to contemplate, individually and in communion with others, their immortal dimension.”

-- Rich Heffern

National Catholic Reporter, February 1, 2002

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