Present Day Architecture: The Dark Ages?

I picked up a book on architecture at the library the other day. I wish I could say that I got it for the articles…and not the pictures. I did stumble upon this quote, which is interesting from an apologetics standpoint.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century there are many more people and exponentially more architects than there have been at any time in the history of civilization. This certainly hasn’t led to an increase in the quality of architecture. Why? Because we no longer build to connect humankind to God or to make sense of our place in the cosmos, but for any number of mundane, banal, fashionable, and profitable reasons that reduce architecture to a vainglorious and earthly pursuit. It is significant that at the very time in history when technology allows buildings to be more thrilling than they ever have been so many are so lackluster, so many more demeaning. Indeed, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the architect’s role has declined. To survive, to continue to excite us as great mosques and temples have done over the millennia, architects need to rediscover the high ground of the imagination, to be the shamans and magicians their predecessors were before the Industrial Revolution when mere building became all too easy. Jonathan Glancey, The Story of Architecture

This is very powerful coming from a secular source. I guess religion is not all bad. Who would have thought?