Heilige Antonius Abtkerk, Scheveningen

The Saint Anthony Abbot Church at Scheveningen in Holland’s The Hague is a curious construction. I was not able to go right in, but was able to access the porch from where a large set of glass doors and window allowed me sight of the peculiar interior. Dating to the mid-1920s, the influence of art deco can be detected, though its own information boards describe it as expressionist.

Scheveningen was (and may still be) a largely Protestant district, and the building's external sobriety and modesty (save its height) was designed to blend in to the more Reformed culture. This is why the interior barely matches the externals in terms of grandeur and opulence. Although I would not typically regard Roman Catholic buildings as offering lessons to the Bible-believing Christian, I rather like the idea of external sobriety accompanied by internal beauty. The godless world in which we live tends to love the opposite; celebrity culture elevates good-looking, athletic young people to roles of fame and influence, while conveniently overlooking the fact they have nothing worth saying. Jesus Christ was an ordinary-looking man who had neither form nor comeliness -in His earthly existence, at least; yet He is the most beautiful and magnificent being in the cosmos, for whom, through whom and by whom, it was made.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.

-Revelation 1:12-17