Humans frequently have a tendency of assigning a "golden age" to a period in the past. It's a matter of economy. Like Gatsby, we know that it takes less effort to create lies about history than put the effort into creating a better tomorrow. True futurism consists of the actions of children moving into a world littered with the errors of their parents.
Now I'm getting side-tracked. This is supposed to be about architecture; specifically, religious architecture. I will make the claim that all golden ages of monumental building inspired by piety are behind us. We're still worshiping financial institutions, but as the experience of the Freedom Tower (or am I supposed to call it 1 WTC) demonstrates, our hearts aren't into it anymore. I think that religious institutions will persist for considerably longer than Richard Dawkins would like them to, but I think any construction projects they undertake will continue to be mundane, conservative, and unmemorable. Smart parishioners will make a point of investing in mixed-use or convertible structures.
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