‘BRIDGE’
IN BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND
THEOLOGY
Michael
Powell
A short note
first presented to
Anglia
Ruskin
University
Chaplaincy Consultation January 2005
INTRODUCTION
Built
Environment approach TO ‘BRIDGE’
Theological
approach TO ‘BRIDGE’
COMMENT
INTRODUCTION
Our Chaplaincy Team convened a
day’s discussion for colleagues, mentors and friends at which we
reflected upon various aspects our experience as a Chaplaincy Team in a
post-modern university.
This short paper was about the idea
of ‘bridge’. I felt that I and people like me were living bridges
between the two worlds we inhabited, in my case those of engineering and
theology.
Top
Built Environment approach to
‘BRIDGE’
There are various facets to the making of bridges which, without
contrivance, can be conceptualised as the 5 E’s – Engineering,
Economic, Environmental, Elegance and Enjoyment. They can be drawn
together as Excellence, modified by the Exceptions which occur when,
even with the best efforts, errors or misjudgments are made.
Engineering
texts offer typologies of bridge such as the flat deck bridge, the
arched bridge, the cantilevered bridge, the suspension bridge and the
box girder bridge. Through the centuries bridge makers have made choices
between local materials such as timber and stone, through brickwork and
concrete, to the complexities of modem steel and fibre technologies. The
skills required for design and construction have varied from unskilled
labour, through the traditional crafts to the most advanced forms of
professional structural engineering. Technical knowledge varies in form
from handed-down tradition, through relatively straight forward,
conservative design, to true innovation based on experimental work in
the engineering laboratory, the computer laboratory or on site. Design
has to take account of both the loads that are to be carried, both
static and dynamic, and the climatological and other conditions to be
withstood. Engineering is always about the exercise of judgement in
relation to future circumstances that can never be entirely foreseen.
Economic
approaches to bridge-building will consider the costs of the structure
itself, in some cases extensive ancillary works in creating routes to
and from it and, often the most important of all, the cost of
maintaining the bridge throughout its useful life. In some cases there
will be a final cost of dismantling or other kind of disposal. The
construction of a bridge may bring economic advantage to both sides of
it or it may take advantage from one side and give it to the other.
Closely associated with both Engineering and Economics
is the matter of Environmental
impact. Obviously every case is different but it seems to me that
environmental impacts are often complex mixtures of advantages and
disadvantages, costs and benefits.
The aesthetic aspects of the bridge are often expressed
in terms of the degree of Elegance
that the structure displays. Elegance is a rich quality sometimes
embodying an appropriate symmetry, a sympathetic relationship with the
surrounding topography and sometimes what is seen not so much in the
structure itself as in the reflection of it in a river over which it
passes.
In saying that, perhaps I have moved on to what might
be looked upon as the Enjoyment
of bridges. We enjoy walking, driving or train-riding across bridges;
there is a sense of adventure. We enjoy the views from bridges, the
industrial as much as the quality landscape. We enjoy watching traffic
or a train or a paper boat or an old stick passing beneath a bridge on
which we are standing. A particular feature of enjoyment can be the view
one gets of the bridge ahead when it does not follow a straight line.
We can draw these threads together under the generic
theme of Excellence.
Excellence in bridge-building includes the careful linking of
Engineering and the associated Economic, Environmental, Elegance and
Enjoyment aspects to achieve the appropriate expectation. Given
conscientious work, adequate resources and no major misfortunes, most of
the time things will, superficially at least, turn out reasonably well.
However, we have to be realistic there will always be Exceptions.
A bridge can turn out to be no more than a monument to someone's
arrogance or folly. A location can turn out to be an inappropriate one.
Foundations can be too weak or too shallow. Calculations can be wrong.
Quality and inspection systems can break down. Necessary flexibility can
unexpectedly be experienced as a sickening or frightening wobble. Bombs
can be dropped in the middle of bridges. Lives can be lost or severe
injuries sustained during construction. Changing circumstances can
render invalid assumptions previously made in good faith. Nine hundred
and ninety nine peoples' place of enjoyment can, for the thousandth
person, be the scene of a tragic accident, murder or suicide
Top
Theological approach TO BRIDGE
I see the main tasks of theology in relation to
creative tasks such as bridge-making as the affirmation and above all Encouragement
endeavours towards excellence and honest Evaluation
of what is achieved.
God's first word, I believe, to human endeavour to
achieve excellence undertaken gladly and responsibly, is a continuation
of his response to his own creative work. As in Genesis 1 God sees the
work and says that it is good
-in the human case of human work not perfect but good and sometimes even
very good.
Second, I believe God, as in Proverbs, recognizes wisdom
when he sees it, reflecting the Wisdom that was with him in the
beginning, as his student.
Third, the prophets bring home God's passion for justice.
Of every bridge, God asks, `Who's receiving the benefits and who the
disbenefits?' Or, to put it another way, to whom does this bridge bring
hope? When, sometimes, the answers to such questions are not as good as
they might be, God's word of judgement is tempered with his mercy.
Just as all the elements of bridge-making coalesce in
meeting an Expectation, so
all the facets of theological reflection, analysis and affirmation
finally come together in God's strong, demanding, rigorous, truthful
love focused on every human endeavour towards excellence, including that
relating to bridge-making.
Theology can bring further insights. For example, it
reminds us that we must never confine ourselves to our own language. French reminds us that `bridge' can also be known as le pont
and that in turn takes us back to the Latin pons, pontis.
One of the English dictionaries with which I started tells me that,
even in English, a `pontifice' is a bridge or bridge-work and a `pontifex,
a bridge-builder. I hope that by spelling `catholic' with a small `c',
the Church catholic can claim the pontifical task of bridge-making for
all its baptized members, not only for its various kinds of accredited
minister. As `the Church within this University', we all have to learn
the arts, sciences and technologies of bridge-making
and, possibly more difficult, of 'bridge-being'.
That is our vocation.
Top
COMMENT
These short observations have shown that in built environment terms
bridge-making is a complex and comprehensive human endeavor towards
excellence. The theological perspective is that of goodness,
wis
dom
and justice. In the fulfillment of vocation, we both make and become
bridges.
Top
Home
Page
|
