Book Notes

The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture

Peter and Linda Murray (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) xii + 596 pp., $49.95

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

Ed. by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 3rd edition) xxxvii + 1,786 pp., $125.00

Biblical dictionaries teach us about the ancient world of the Bible, but these two dictionaries of Christian art and church elucidate the effect of the Bible on European civilization. Each article in the Companion to Christian Art and Architecture reviews the relevant Scriptural narrative and then the artistic representations of that biblical passage.