CMP Review 2025-07-24

July 24, 2025

“This chapel was built not for a church, but for a private home.” These words I read at the Detroit Institute of Arts on a recent visit. Back in 1522, the Bayer de Boppard family commissioned the chapel to be the central feature projecting from the façade of their French chateau. It was probably used for daily devotions and private family services.

In 1923 the chapel was purchased by the Detroit Arts Commission. “Each stone was painstakingly removed, numbered for reassembly, and shipped to the United States.” Architects then embedded the chapel into their overall design for the museum where it now resides today.

Standing in the Gothic chapel reminded me of how architecture and art can lift our hearts to new thoughts of God. I can imagine the members of the Bayer de Boppard family entering this room day after day and being inspired to reverence and awe.

Few of us will have chapels like this built into our house. But all of us can make worship and prayer the central feature of our homes. Daily rhythms of Bible lessons, hymns, study, and reflection can be the way of life that establishes the thought of God as the habit of our heart.

@artmiddlekauff