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Building God's House in the Roman World: Architectural Adaptation among Pagans, Jews, and Christians . By L. Michael White. The ASOR Library of Biblical and Near Eastern Archaeology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. xvii + 211 pp. $27.50.

Building God's House in the Roman World: Architectural Adaptation among Pagans, Jews, and Christians. By L. MICHAEL WHITE. The ASOR Library of Biblical and Near Eastern Archaeology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. xvii + 211 pp. $27.50. Early Christian architecture for many people means catacombs and basilicas. Michael White has written a social history of selected worship structures in the ancient world which looks at evidence for other architectural forms. The examples he discusses show that individual family homes often were renovated to create the worship centers for different religious groups. The house churches mentioned in the New Testament provide a more important basis for tracing architectural development than is sometimes assumed. When Christian groups were small they adapted private buildings to meet their needs. As they grew in size and wealth, they on occasion purchased adjoining houses or groups of houses to create what might be called hall churches. Even the construction of basilicas in the fourth century C.E. did not always mean that previously private buildings were razed in order that new structures might be built on the land. Some Christian basilicas were themselves created by renovating houses. Such developmental progression can be found for pagan, particularly Mithraic, and Jewish worship centers as well.