The Proximity of Love

The Proximity of Love

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Christians are interested in the relationship between form and content.  We trust that when Jesus took bread (not grain, but bread) and a cup of wine (not grapes, or even grape juice), he knew exactly what he was doing.  He was sanctifying that which was a product of daily life and labor – culture.  In doing so He blessed and sanctified all of life, assuring us that he is both concerned with and at work through the supposedly “mundane” tasks of gathering, gleaning, crushing, mixing, baking, fermenting, eating, and drinking.

Thus, we are interested not only in ideas, but also in the carrying out of such.  One of the areas of the culture that we continually explore as a staff is one quite basic to the wedding of form and content – architecture.  The following article by James K.A. Smith, even notes some of the folks who have edified us (people like Alain de Botton, whose work The Architecture of Happiness is a fascinating read & John Ruskin, whose Lectures on Art is a fine illustration of concern for aesthetics in the basic aspects of modern life – like the building of roads and the arrangement of cityscapes).

In this article written for Comment Magazine,  Dr. Smith considers the relation between geography & architecture and the greatest commandment.

Bill