As Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, it did more than change hearts—it redefined space. The architectural legacy of Roman religion, once dedicated to a pantheon of gods, came under new ownership. The church, as it emerged from the margins, began to repurpose temple space—places previously reserved for empire and cult—and imbued them with new meaning in Christ. This wasn’t just a practical shift; it was deeply theological.
Richard Bayliss identifies three distinct ways temples were repurposed into churches in the fourth and fifth centuries. These categories—temple-church, temenos-church, and temple-spolia-church—help us see how early Christians creatively reimagined sacred space to embody the gospel. Asia Minor, a region dense with both classical temples and early Christian witness, offers some of the best examples of this architectural and theological transformation.
Temple-Church: Reclaiming the Sanctuary
The first and most direct method of repurposing was the temple-church—the transformation of the temple itself into a functioning church. In Asia Minor, this form is clearly attested.
In Ephesos, the Temple of Serapis was reused as a church by the fourth century (Bayliss 2004:125). While it is popular to identify the Church of St. Mary as the site of the Third Ecumenical Council in AD 431—where Mary was affirmed as Theotokos—the date of the Serapis temple-church more closely aligns with the council, if indeed it was not held in an altogether different space. The reuse of this particular temple would have communicated a potent theological statement: the triumph of Christ as divine healer over the healing gods of the empire.
At Miletos, the Temple of Dionysos presents another example of a temple-church. An early Christian ambo (pulpit)—used for reading Scripture—is clearly visible, while scattered lintel blocks marked with crosses reinforce the Christian transformation of the space.
Similarly, the Temple of Apollo at Didyma was adapted for Christian use. An apse was inserted into the interior staircase, and the presence of christograms, a staurogram, and columns carved with crosses all signal the building’s new purpose. Here, the architectural bones of the pagan past were not erased, but reframed—used to proclaim the risen Christ in the very heart of a former cultic site dedicated to prophecy.
Temenos-Church: Sanctifying the Grounds
The second type of transformation involved building within the temenos, the sacred precinct of the temple, rather than the temple structure itself.
In Ephesos, the Church of St. Mary—dated to AD 474—was built in the southern hall of the Olympeion temenos (Bayliss 2004:54). Though long associated with the Council of AD 431, its construction came decades later, making it unlikely as the council’s actual location. Still, its placement within the temple grounds of Olympian Zeus reflects a conscious decision to reclaim imperial religious space for Christian worship.
Sardis offers another compelling example. There, within the massive temple complex dedicated to Artemis, a small Byzantine-period church was constructed. Though modest in size, its location within the temenos of one of Asia Minor’s most important temples speaks volumes. Christians didn’t need to destroy the past—they simply reoriented it.
Temple-Spolia-Church: Recycling the Empire
The third and most symbolically rich category is the temple-spolia-church, where architectural elements—columns, capitals, marble—were taken from pagan temples and reused in the construction of churches elsewhere.
Back in Ephesos, the Church of St. John, believed to mark the burial site of the beloved disciple, stands as a powerful example. Marble from the Artemiseon, the famed Temple of Artemis, was transported for the church’s construction. Some of the columns still bear inscriptions, indicating who was responsible for repurposing the materials. One capital, conspicuously marked with a cross, remains at the Artemiseon—a visible witness to its transformation from imperial cult to Christian proclamation.
Bayliss’s typology helps us recognize that these weren’t just building projects. They were theological declarations. The empire’s stones were crying out the gospel.
Reclaiming Sacred Space Today
The reorientation of temple space in Asia Minor wasn’t accidental. It was intentional, theological, and missional. Early Christians repurposed more than buildings—they repurposed meaning. As I argue in Mind the Gap, repurposed religious spaces communicated not just a change in architecture, but a new social imagination where Christian identity reinterpreted Rome’s religious space.
This prompts a critical question for us today: what are the temples of our own cultural moment, and how might we repurpose them for gospel proclamation?
Yet, a caution must also accompany any repurposing of space. Be careful to not allow the space to create a captive ecclesiology. Along with adapting the architecture of Asia Minor, the church ultimately added rituals and liturgy that resembled former religious practices which contributed to an unnecessary burden on Christianity.
Adapted from Dr. Cooper’s forthcoming volume, Mind the Gap: Filling a Missiological Void with the Archaeological Record (Wipf and Stock).
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