(now
BUILT
ENVIRONMENT AND BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
MAKING
CONNECTIONS: DISCERNING RELATIONSHIPS
MICHAEL POWELL
Doctor of Philosophy February 2003
4 - METHODOLOGICAL MATTERS
In
everything that nature makes, nature records how
it was made. In the rock is a record of how the rock was made. In man is the record of how man was made.
(Louis Kahn)
4.1
Purpose
The purpose of this Section is to record and reflect on
how the materials described in Section 2 and the models described in Section 3
came together to create this thesis.
4.2
Recognising complexity
While much material could be read, little progress
could be made until the multi-stranded, complex nature of the work came to be
recognised and accepted. Strands included the following dualities:
Biblical
Theology
Built Environment
Materials
Models
Specific
materials
Wider materials
Picture
model
Disclosure model
Study
of texts
Study visits
Descriptive
work
Analytical work
Flexible
work in
Action
time
Gestation time
4.3
Matters of process
The following main sequence of work was envisaged at
the outset:
Year
1 first half
research on Biblical Theology and compiling a Section of the thesis
Year
1 second half
research on
Year
2 first half
research visit to
Year
2 second half
integration and compiling the final Section of
the thesis.
While the above had to be broadly maintained because of
the fixed timing of the visit to
Biblical
Theology first
iteration
) concurrently with
Biblical
Theology second
iteration
All areas
third iteration
Each iteration involved research and the compilation of
a working paper
The Tasmanian work became the `meat in the sandwich'
because it had to be completed iunng the course of the study visit.
4.4
Matters of general structure
The simple word `iteration' hides two problems.
The first was the continuing search for the best way to
relate the various categories of materials, as each of them was becoming
almost a research field in itself.
At one time it was thought that each category, already
substantially written up as a working paper. could be a Section represented by
some part of the Sydney Opera House with one integrating, final Section based
on the notion of the single sphere. As it became progressively more apparent
that this was likely to prove too cumbersome, it also became progressively
more difficult to part with 'my paper on
The second, more fundamental problem was to discern
what the materials and model were sayng about the nature of connections
between Biblical Theology and Built Environment. There emerged a
list of some fifteen topics, such as Light, Boundaries and Walls, Beauty,or
Trees and Timber that seemed to arise across the categories of materials. By
themselves they seemed too definite and theoretical to form the main structure
of the thesis.
Back-to-back' structures such as the one set out below
were interesting to experiment with but again seemed too rigid and ran the
danger of being seen as `the answer':
Biblical Theology
Built Environment
Creation/redemption
Usefulness
Location
Land Materials Materials
Meaning
Aesthetics
Relationships
Relationships
Hope
Worth
A combination of topic-based and back-to-back
connections was explored but it seemed that it
would produce a two-part approach with little coherence.
The matter of general structure remained irresolvable
for a considerable time. In the meantime, consideration had to be given to the
other matters discussed below.
4.5
Matters of cross-disciplinary working
It was not easy to maintain a balance between Biblical
Theology and Built Environment. There were times when one or other was
over-dominant and claiming the other as a subordinate - `built environment is
just a case of applied theology' or `biblical theology is really
no more than a particular case of archaeology or history`.
This unease gave rise to the possibility that a third
discipline, such as Cultural Studies or Textual Studies, might force its way
in as a means of making connections. To have let that happen would have been to lose the desired head-to-head encounter
between Biblical Theology and Built Environment.
Another aspect of the cross-discipline problem
concerned the nature of research. Biblical Theology often tends to be
scholarly and discursive, while Built Environment can be empirical and use
report-like forms of presentation.
Perhaps
the most important matter was that of making appropriate connections. Both the
Built Environment and Biblical Theology materials needed to be handled with
respect for factual accuracy but also with an imaginativeness that enabled
them to be related to each other. It was found that while there were some
places where the connections were quite explicit and could be discussed
easily, there were others where the links were more subtle and implicit,
needing careful discernment.
There was a specific question about Illustration. A
decision had to be taken on whether to include in the thesis photographs of
Built Environment locations. To do so properly would have required
professional photographic skills in both
4.6
Matters of scholarly practice
A recurring matter concerned epistemology. It needed to
be bome in mind that this thesis was not being
written to contribute significantly to what may be thought of as the internal
knowledge edge banks of the Built Environment and Biblical Theology fields.
Its intended contribution should lie in the area of modelling and making clear
and explicit connections between the two. Put colloquially, the question it
seeks to answer, at least in part, is `What have Environment and Biblical
Theology got to do with each other?
While it had been envisaged that both Biblical Theology
and Built Environment could be approached either in a straightforward way -
`this is what the text says' or 'this is what happens when people build'- or
in a probing, analytical way, it has emerged that these are not always so much
alternatives as ends of a continuum. It has also become apparent that a source
which in itself may be very deep and probing, can be used in a straightforward
way. The approach has been largely pragmatic, choosing and using materials to
suit the purposes of this thesis but in ways that do not violate the
intentions of their authors.
The
materials that have come to light have come from a mix of historical and
contemporary sources. In several
cases fictional materials have been used where they make a point well. An item
has been used for the illumination it brings to the matter in hand. Whether it
is historical, contemporary or fictional is of little relevance provided it
does the job required of it, again without violation to its source.
While the built
environment materials for
Throughout, there was a need to find appropriate scales
and textures with which to work and viewpoints at which to stand. On the
matter of texture, Grayling (2001) says:
The ability to see the small and the ordinary in their
full particularity brings the texture of the world richly into view, and
surprises one because it shows that small things can be large in meaning, and
that scarcely anything is ordinary after all.
(Grayling 2001:207)
On the matter of viewpoint, McNiff (1998)
says
I
n order to understand how objects of contemplation change in relation to the
perspective of the viewer, place a simple rock in the middle of your lawn or
on the floor in a room. Move very slowly round the rock and notice how its
appearance changes as you adjust your vantage point. There are many different
ways of looking at the same rock. Change the height of your vantage point as
you move round the rock. Get down low and as high as possible_ Look at it dose
up and from a distance. Imagine what it would be like to look at the world
from different vantage points inside
the rock. Imagine the rock looking at you.
(McNiff
1992:72)
It was necessary to recognize that there is always a
personal relationship with materials being studied,
whether texts or places. Ralph (1980)
identifies seven such relationships, some of which have been found
by the writer to be applicable to himself over the course of preparing this
thesis:
Existential outsideness
A self-aware and reflective uninvolvement; alienation;
not belonging; homelessness
Objective outsideness
The
academic changing of immediate experience into theories; deep separation of
person from place
Incidental
outsideness
Place
is simply setting or background for activities
Vicarious insideness
Deeply
felt involvement but without having visited a place
Behavioural insideness
Deep
attention to the place which is often marked by wails or other kind of
boundary
Empathetic
insideness
Deep
and willing openness to significance and symbols
Existential
insideness
Non-self-conscious
belonging; deep and complete identity
(Ralph
1980:51)
4.7 Matters of
detailed structure
A still unsolved methodological matter was that of the
form of the detailed work.
While working through the materials and the various
methodological matters discussed in 4.5 and 4.6 above, it became apparent that
two sets of small Sections would be appropriate. One set (Sections 5-9) would
start at the centre of the single conceptual sphere with a major biblical text
and envisage centrifugal forces towards built environment. These Sections,
related to the Concert Hall in the picture model, would have the following
sequence:
1. Purpose of Section
2.
Summary of the biblical text
3.
Survey of commentaries on the biblical text
4.
Consideration of wider theological materials
5.
Consideration of wider buift environment materials
6.
Links to the
7.
Links to
8. Synthesis and
centrifugal dynamic
The other set (Sections 10-14) would start at the
surface of the single conceptual sphere with a major built environment theme
and envisage centripetal forces towards biblical theology. These Sections,
related to the Opera Theatre, would have the following sequence:
1. Purpose of Section
2.
Nature of theme
3.
Insights from
4.
Insights from
5.
Consideration of wider built environment materials
6.
Consideration of wider theological materials
7.
Links to the biblical texts
8. Synthesis and
centripetal dynamic
Each of the ten Sections could be envisaged as a
dynamic centre-to-surface or surface-to centre cone.
For a long time it seemed there would be no sensible,
unforced way of relating these conical Sections to the interesting surface
pattern of pentagons and hexagons. However, late in the process it was
realised that little use was being made of the biblical material from the
Epistles and that what use was being made could be combined with Revelation,
thus giving five biblically led sections, which became Sections 5-9. Nothing
would be lost in balancing this with five built environment-led sections,
which became Sections 10-14. Each of these sets of five Sections could be
related to the ring of five hexagons around a pentagon
As
the work proceeded, it became possible to identify a built-environment-related
theme in each of Sections 5-9 and to relate each of Sections 10-14 to one of
the sections of biblical materials under consideration, giving a balanced,
back-to-back structure as follows:
CENTRIFUGAL TRAJECTORIES
CENTRIPETAL TRAJECTORIES
Biblical text
Built environment
Built environment
Biblical text
related theme
related theme
5
Psalms
Wonder and beauty
10 Traversing places and
times Psalms
6
Genesis and John 1
Beginning
11 Resources
Genesis and John 1
7
Nehemiah
Significance
12 Types and purposes
Nehemiah
8
John’s Gospel
Identity
13 Cost and worth
John’s Gospel
9
Epistles and Revelation Becoming
14 Home
Epistles and Revelation
These Sections and their internal structures present a
tidy and logical appearance. That is only part of the reality they represent.
The other aspect of reality is that of pragmatic judgement including the
following:
4.8
Concluding matters
It will be apparent that the development of the
methodology and the exploration of structural options extended over a long
period. It is believed that the decision to stop experimenting and stop
searching at the point reached in section 4.7 was the right one. Had the
process been taken further, the point would have been reached where structure
and model had evaporated, to leave something like the text of a book. If that
had been allowed to happen, much of the methodological value of the work, as
opposed to content value, would have been lost.
This methodology has proved to be heuristic. It does
enable discovery to happen or, to put it another way, it enables inherent
truth and meaning to emerge or be revealed.
This is not a prescriptive methodology that could have
been stated at the outset and followed through in a rigorously disciplined
way. It is much more a belief that, given time and space, things will come to
make sense of themselves. It is a journey of trust that something will happen
and that some measure of an appropriate type of creativity will occur
It was at a time of some darkness and doubt in the
gestation of the work, that the text by McNiff (1998) entitled Trust
the Process, came to hand. He writes about his experience as a
postgraduate research tutor in the visual arts, linking what he has to say
with an aspect of the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead: `In his classic
text, Process and Reality, Alfred North Whitehead affirmed the ultimate goal of
the creative process as an "enlargement" of imagination for all
people.' (McNiff, 1998:4). If we are to be creative, we need to accept the
challenge of letting our imaginations be enlarged. McNiff’s argument is that
for this to happen one has to entrust oneself to the creative process and go
where it leads.