How do cathedrals and churches understand themselves? Are they shop windows, through which to gaze at the riches on offer within the Christian life? Are they beacons of hope? Are they places of common understanding for all? Implicitly, discussion may draw on metaphor without fully appreciating the `ground' (that is, the resemblance between `target' and `source'), not only in describing sociological and ecclesiological phenomena, but actually shaping and transforming them. This novel and innovative volume focuses attention for the first time on analysis both conceptual and empirical in nature designed to illuminate the power of metaphors used of cathedrals and churches. It will provide an important contribution to the scholarship in cathedral and congregational studies and a thought-provoking critique for anybody with responsibility for the mission and ministry of cathedrals and parish churches in the U.K and beyond.