JR Woodward :: Blog :: A Theology of the Built Environment - A Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Timothy Gorringe is a professor, reverend and prolific author.  His academic interests are wide, including theology, culture, art, social science, criminal justice, economics, politics and the theology of Karl Barth. He currently serves as a Professor of Theological Studies at Exeter University in the South West of England and is a member of Iona Community.

THESIS
Gorringe in A Theology of the Built Environment argues that theology ought to be concerned about space, architecture, design, public policy, ecological sustainability and city planning, because all of life expresses our theology and even buildings “make moral statements” (1).

OVERVIEW
Gorringe starts his argument by basically saying that we build our environment and then our environment builds us, thus we ought to care about how we build our environment.  He proposes a Trinitarian mapping of spatiality.  God the Holy Spirit, the Redeemer, is “the author and inspirer of all those visions of a better human environment” (48) and God the Father is the Creator who “brings order out of chaos, the structuring of space by form” (48) and God the Son, the Reconciler “takes flesh in order to teach peace to the nations and make justice concrete (49).  Gorringe then takes this mapping of spatiality and makes it concrete, by looking at land as a gift that ought to be stewarded for the whole rather than absolutely possessed by the individual.  When talking about housing, he proposes environmentally sustainability as a key feature for future building as well as beauty in diversity.  He continues to apply this Trinitarian mapping to the town and country, the city, and the built environment in terms of community and art.  He concludes with how to proceed in the future with the environmental crises that is upon us.

THOUGHTS ON BOOK
Having lived in the suburbs and a college town for most of my life and the city for the last six years of my life, I can really appreciate Gorringe’s thesis that we make our space and then our space makes us, so we ought to care about how we make our space.  The more I live, the more that I sense the ethos of a place by simply walking around and feeling and sensing what is all around me.  As my understanding of the gospel become more robust, I am able to see how God is concerned about redeeming every aspect of life, including space, architecture, our approach to housing, sustainable living and public policy because each of these things that Gorringe talks about in this book shape the kind of people we become.  One quote that continues to run around in my mind is, “In the built environment social relations are inscribed concretely in space.  All ideologies ‘project themselves into a space, becoming inscribed there, and in the process producing that space itself” (27).  This is something that I want to continue to think about as I live out my life here in the city.

Having recently been elected to serve on the board of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, I have had the privilege to learn much more about the environment that I live in, and I have even voted on a number proposals that have come before our board like whether or not a particular house should be torn down and replaced by an apartment complex that doesn’t really fit the neighborhood.  I have learned that Los Angeles has the least amount of parks for any major city and I have the opportunity to bring a greater degree of redemption to the city by working for more public parks as well as concrete justice in regards to affordable housing.  This book has helped to bring a greater sense of value to the hours that I spend wrestling through a lot of “built environment” issues that we face as a city. I plan to re-read this book so that I might bring a greater sense of beauty and redemption to our neighborhood.