ANGLIA POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
(now Anglia Ruskin University )

 BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND BIBLICAL THEOLOGY

MAKING CONNECTIONS: DISCERNING RELATIONSHIPS

MICHAEL POWELL

 

 Doctor of Philosophy  February 2003

ABSTRACT

The aim of this thesis is to relate `Biblical Theology' to `Built Environment' using specific biblical texts and built environment locations and by means of `picture' and `disclosure' models.

Built Environments are viewed at one level as everyday building activity and at a deeper level as embodiments of ideas and values, mirrors to human life. Similarly, at one level Biblical Theology is simply the text of the Bible, while at a deeper level it is what is revealed by a complex text built up over time and through experience. interpreted in the contemporary world to give deep and archetypal insights into life.

Two specific built environments, the Borough of Chelmsford in the UK and part of Tasmania . the island State of Australia , are investigated by means of texts and observation. Specific biblical materials selected from Genesis. Nehemiah, the Psalms, John's Gospel, the Epistles and Revelation are studied in depth. Both sets of specific studies are balanced by the study of more general works, mainly practical in the case of Biblical Theology and philosophical in the case of Built Environment.

Sydney Opera House ads as both a `picture' model envisaging different Sections of the thesis as different parts of the building and as a 'disclosure' model.

The 'disclosure' model is based on the fact that all the sail-like parts of Sydney Opera House are derived from a single sphere. It demonstrates coherence and unity between ten sets of Built Environment and Biblical Theology materials. Five sets travel from Biblical Theology to Built Environment and five from Built Environment to Biblical Theology.

This dynamic travel is conceptualised through viewing the single sphere, not as concrete, but as light emanating from the centre point and reaching the surface of the sphere. The centre is seen as Biblical Theology and the surface as Built Environment. Between the two. centrifugal and centripetal forces operate.

Following this detailed work with the `disclosure' model, the thesis returns to the 'picture' model. In the penultimate Section, a wide-ranging, imaginative set of discussions is opened up, which engage with the mainly human aspects of the materials .

In the final Section, a perspective is taken offshore from Sydney Opera House. This reviews the complex research process undertaken, draws attention to principal discoveries made, particularly those concerning the interaction of materials with models, and reflects on the potential of the work in terms of usefulness, generalisability and contribution to knowledge. It argues that methodology and process have combined with the richness of the materials employed and the potential of the work, to constitute a revelatory and original thesis.

Recommendations are made for further work on relating Built Environment and Biblical Theology, on relating Biblical Theology to other areas of contemporary life and Built Environment to, for example, the Koran, all coupled with further methodological and process developments.

 

Back