(now
BUILT
ENVIRONMENT AND BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
MAKING
CONNECTIONS: DISCERNING RELATIONSHIPS
MICHAEL POWELL
Doctor of Philosophy February 2003
8 JOHN’S GOSPEL: IDENTITY
Everyone has a figure in his work to
whom he feels answerable. l also say to myself,
`How am 1 doing, Corbusier' You see, Corbusier was my teacher, and Paul
Cret was my teacher. l have learned not to do as they did, not to imitate, but
to sense their spirit (Louis Kahn)
8.1
Purpose
The purpose of this Section is to consider John 1: 19-51; 9-10; and 14-16.
These
materials are seen to be concerned with the identity of Jesus and hence with
his relationships with the Jews of Jerusalem and with his disciples. As
depicted by John these relationships centre around his claims to have been
sent from God as light for the world, hotly contested by the Jews but
significant for a man bom blind, and to be the only Son of the Father,
something needing explanation.
Built Environments are bound up with people and
communities, their identities, claims, needs and relationships. The
centrifugal dynamic forces questions about such matters inasmuch as they are
depicted by built environments.
8.2
Summary of the biblical text
The
text of chapter 1 moves from the archetypal prologue considered in Section fi
above to the typological events of John 1:19-51. John the
Baptist is outside
John 8 opens
with Jesus who, having spent time out at the
In John 9 the theme of the
light of the world is continued in an encounter with a man born blind. Neither
he nor his parents have sinned to cause his blindness. He is to be a sign.
Jesus spits on the ground, mixes saliva with mud and rubs the paste onto the
man's eyes, who, when he has washed it off, is able to see. There is
consternation. The man's neighbours ask whether it really was him. The Jews
think he was not born blind at all but his parents insist that he was. The
Jews insist that he was born in sin and drive him out. When Jesus finds him,
he accepts that Jesus is the Son of Man and worships him. The encounter ends
with Jesus saying that it is the Pharisees who will become blind and be in a
state of sin.
The setting of John 1416 is
neither the temple precincts nor the streets, but the Passover meal shared by
Jesus and his disciples, during which he speaks intimately to them. He sees
the time coming when, after his death, they will be put out of the synagogues.
Neither he nor his Father will be known and the ad of expulsion itself will be
looked upon as an ad of worship.
The theme of this Passover
discourse is relationship and discipleship. Jesus is going to the Father's
house; there he will prepare rooms for them. His departure will be painful for
them. To ease the pain, he will ask the Father to send an Advocate, the Holy
Spirit. His parting gift will be peace. The mark of the relationship between
him and the Father is love, as it is to be between him and them, and among
them. The Father is like a vine-grower, Jesus is the true vine, into which the
disciples may be grafted and from which much good fruit will come. All this
pertains to the truth. The long-term outcome will be joy, even though in the
short-term they will know persecution. Always, the purpose is to glorify God.
8.3 Biblical commentators
The work of four commentators is
considered. Koester works with the symbolism of light and what it reveals
about identity. Malina and
Rohrbaugh work from a sociological perspective and explain the place of Jesus'
anti-society within Jewish society. Lindars' approach to the concept of 'life'
is considered. Dodd is the source of some further relevant detail.
Koester (1995) demonstrates how John uses symbols to enable people to know about God. `The Gospel presents the paradox that the divine is made known through what is earthly and the universal is disclosed through what is particular'. (Koester 1995:3). The symbols operate simultaneously on two levels: one level of meaning concems Christ and the other discipleship of him.
People are drawn into the experience of the man bom
blind. `We must work the works of him who sent me ` (9:4). We' can include
those living at the time the Gospel was written. It is not Jesus who is centre-stage
but the man himself, thus evoking the time when Jesus will , be absent and `he
who believes in me will also do the works that I do' (
The light to which the blind man has come is a
particular, or typological, case of something more widely significant. The
symbols of light and darkness are archetypal but have particular meaning in
the context of the account of Jesus given in John. God's Word, which was for
all humanity, became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, in
Jesus' proclamation that he was the light of the world
was set during the Feast of Tabernacles (7:2), the weeklong celebration of the
wilderness period utilised by Nehemiah. Koester gives a most evocative
architectural picture:
Each
evening worshippers crowded into the women's court, where four enormous
lampstands were erected, each supporting four large bowls of oil with wicks
made from the discarded undergarments of the priests. Throughout the night,
young men from the priestly families clambered up ladders with additional oil
to refill the lamps, so that the light shone incessantly in the darkness. Its
rays gleamed from the temple's white stone walls and the bronze gate at the
end of the courtyard, where Levites played their harps, lyres, cymbals and
trumpets, as men noted for their piety and good works sang and danced to the
Songs of Ascents (Psalms122-134) with as many as eight flaming torches in
their hands. The radiance emanating from the temple illumined courtyards
throughout the city until the first shafts of daylight appeared over the
(Koester
1995:141)
Some understanding of the Old Testament would have been
necessary to see the significance of the festival of Tabernacles but the
divine character of light was recognized by people throughout the ancient
world. To walk in the light (
Malina and Rohrbaugh (1998)
provide a social science commentary on John. Their aim is to enable their
readers to interpret the text in a way that would be fair to the original
writer and audience. They believe the text depicts `an alternate reality ....
set up in opposition to its opponents, notably `this world' and 'the
Judeans"' (Malina and Rohrbaugh 1998:9). `John's group' sets up this
alternate reality. Its existence implies: `an emphasis on new core values and
an attempt to create standards and structures to implement those values.
Similarly, it implies a preoccupation with social boundaries, social
definition and the defence of identity.' (Malina and Rohrbaugh 1998:12). Such
alternates are also characterised by a special conception of information and
knowledge through, in the case of John, Jesus as revealer of alternatives.
Malina and Rohrbaugh point out that the New Testament
world and John's altemate world even more so, were societies in which there
was a widely shared understanding of contexts and meanings. Societies were
simple and change occurred slowly_ This is not like the modem world:
Life today has complexified
into a thousand spheres of experience the general public does not share in
common. There are small worlds of experience in every comer of our society
that the rest of us know nothing about... the worlds of the engineer, the
plumber, the insurance salesperson, and the farmer nowadays are in large
measure self-contained. Should any one of these people write for the
layperson... he or she would have much to explain. This is sharply different
from antiquity.
(Malina
and Rohrbaugh 1998:17)
John depicts an anti-society, `a social structure based
on interpersonal relationships, on persons and their significance, on mutual
trust and group loyatty' (Malina and Rohrtiaugh 1998:47). Members of this
in-group `have hearts full of light. They have been bom of God's power, and
are Spirit-filled, really alive, truthful, and open to God'. (Malina and
Rohrbaugh 1998:47). Members of the out-group, `on the other hand, have hearts
full of darkness. They have been born of human desire, and they are simply
human. For all practical purposes, they are already dead. They speak only
falsehoods, are tied to earthly experiences, and are deceived by Satan and
succumb to his loyalty tests. They are Judeans, devoted to the social symbols
located in
The
The
(Malina
and Rohrbaugh 1998:78)
The temple was also politically and economically
significant: `
Lindars
(1990) provides a general treatment of John. A
particular aspect of importance and relevance is the matter of personal
relationship with God and the life that that relationship constitutes. A major
component in the Gospel is the discourse material, including the farewell
discourse of which chapters 1416 are part. This material may have emanated
from homiletic sources. The foundational relationship is that of Jesus with
the Father, which is one of absolute union. Thus the death of Jesus is not
atonement but what happens as a result of the union of a totally human person
with God. The totally human Jesus engages with the realities of life and the
world and faces them to their farthest limits.
The consequence for human beings is
life in relationship with God or, to put it another way, etemal life becomes
both a present reality and a future promise. Lindars maintains that all
religion is quest for `life'. The life that Christianity offers is life with
God through the work of Jesus and the actions of the Paraclete or Holy Spirit.
In today's context, `life' can be interpreted as `the deepest aspirations of
every individual reader'. (Lindars 1990:99). Such fulfilled life surpasses in
quality everything lived under `law'.
Dodd (1968, 1973), in his strategic work, draws attention to
matters, which are relevant to the purpose of this dissertation. Some of them
are commented upon here:
·
The
notion of `truth' arises in, for example, 14:6 `I am the way, and the truth,
and the life' and
·
Chapter
14 is concerned with the relationships between Jesus and the Father and
between Jesus and his disciples. Each of these relationships creates a
community of life, life shared. The idea continues in 15:1-12 where the
imagery of branch and vine is used: the former is in-grafted by the
vinedresser into the latter. A triangle of relations is completed: `the
Father, the Son and the disciples all dwell in one another by virtue of a love
that is the very life and the activity of God. In the Father, it is the love
that gave the Son for the world; in the Son it is the love that brings forth
perfect obedience to the Father's will, and lays down life for the disciples;
in the disciples it is the love that leads them to obey His command and to
love one another, and by their obedience the Father is glorified in the Son'.
(Dodd 1973:196).
8.4 General Biblical Theology
texts
Two groups of people are considered
here, colonialists and prisoners; both are involved in contention
and raise acute questions about relationships.
Because
Colonisation by European countries gave rise to a
rhetoric `that the adventurous Europeans pioneered in a savage wilderness and
brought civilization to it. They saw themselves as bringing the true light and
recreating the true society. Such myths disguise the truth that
A mythology developed that Europeans had the right to
conquer and settle a land for some combination of the following reasons:
1
The land was in a virgin state........... (the `virgin land' or
wilderness theory).
2 The people (to be) conquered were of an inferior
status, and the colonisers enjoyed an inalienable right to resist opposition
from the indigenes (the myth of self-defence).
3 The mission to civilise or evangelise.
4
The enterprise was legitimised by appealing to such an unchallenged
ideological motivation....
(Prior
1997:177)
Prior maintains that part of the problem of colonialism
lay in its selective and mistaken interpretation of biblical material,
including Genesis. The true interpretation, as he sees it, is that the
universalism of chapters 1-11 is followed by the development of the Chosen
People - the Promised Land paradigm. The mistaken interpretation was for the
colonisers to identify themselves with the Chosen People without also
embracing the universalism. A second major problem arises for Prior in the, to
him, erroneous belief that the patriarchal narratives of Genesis, ie from
The making of such restorations, whether under Cyrus or
Victoria, is the true function of empire: `The Persian texts, in particular,
represent Cyrus as understanding the restoration of the peoples and their gods
as the primary function of empire. His successors determined to centralise
their control by a `restoration' of the indigenous traditions of subject
peoples........... This period is the most likely context for the biblical
narrative of GenesisKings.' (Prior 1997:241).
Prior's central concem is to warn of the danger and en-or
of using the Bible selectively as a legitimating text for behaviour which is
immoral. `Biblical scholars have the most serious obligation to prevent
outrages being perpetrated in the name of fidelity to the biblical covenant.
The application of the Bible in the defence of the Crusades, Spanish and
Portuguese colonialism, South African Apartheid and political Zion ism5
has been a calamity leading to the suffering and humiliation of millions of
people, and to the loss of respect for the Bible as having something
significant to contribute to humanity.' (Prior 1997:292).
Prison buildings and the lives of prisoners are
significant in
In Prisons: A
Study in Vulnerability (1999), the Board of Social Responsibility of
the Church of England noted that on 31 January 1999, 23 614 male prisoners
were occupying 19 691 places. This represented 20% overcrowding on average but
considerably more than average in some places. Prisoners were constantly being
moved, sometimes far from home and family, to ensure optimal use of
accommodation. These situations, combined with staff reductions, reductions in
the education service and increased time spent in cells, added to
vulnerability.
In relation to mentally disordered offenders, Cummings
(1999) says 'Scant resources compound the difficulties in achieving an
environment where individuals are contained, supported, provided for, and
given as healthy a lifestyle as possible'. (Cummings 1999:60).
In an Appendix to Cummings' essay, the Church
Times shows how the general issue
In
November 1994,....... Christopher had been arrested for a minor public order
offence. After a brief court appearance the following morning he was remanded
in custody in Chelmsford Prison. Twenty-four hours later he had been kicked to
death by his cellmate.
Christopher
Edwards was mentally ill and so was the man who murdered him....
[Christopher's father said] `Prisons are awful places, and to send
someone who is mentally ill into that environment is disastrous. Yet
they are
dosing mental hospitals and building
more prisons all the time'.
(Cummings 1999:66-7)
There is much about this case that
cannot be said here, much of it to do with social and professional policies
rather than built environment. But the story of these two men illustrates
clearly and painfully how the built environment is the expression and
instrument of value systems.
8.5 General Built Environment texts
Brief consideration is given here
to two texts. Brill is concerned with the practice of place making and Short
with city making. Both insist on the identification of the people involved.
Brill (1994) is concerned with
typological aspects of place making and therefore, by implication, with the
creation of identities. The act of place making must, he maintains, be made to
feel central to our humanness. Place making must be given clear links to some
of humanity's basic questions:
Who are we?
Where have we come from?
Where should we go?
What does it all mean?
He goes so far as to suggest that
architecture and landscape architecture might be taught
'as if
they were a branch of the humanities, one of those ways we present ourselves
to ourselves, like ethics, history and philosophy.'
(Brill 1994:77).
Short (1991) is
clear in his thesis: 'Cities should be places where ordinary citizens can lead
dignified and creative lives'. (Short 1989:1). Ordinary citizens do not get
the best from their cities because capital, power and `some people' exercise
disproportionate influence. Short admits to being an idealist. He struggles to
identify a socio-economic model for the future that lies beyond liberalism,
welfare and the capitalism versus socialism dichotomy. `Recent years', he
says, `have witnessed an increasing use of the word "crisis °..... The
ambivalent nature of what [crisis] describes is captured in Chinese where the
word is composed of two figures: one signifies danger, the other signifies
opportunity.' (Short 1991:137).
Following Short, the struggle, it
may be said, is to mould cities in ways that give identity and opportunities
to ordinary citizens.
8.6
The following stories, related to building, enable one
to ask about identities and relationships. They relate to the poor and
homeless, prisoners, building workers, some unnamed, and their relationships
with the powerful in society.
Prior to an Act of 1553 the condition of the poor,
needy and homeless was a matter of private charity, but in 1553 it became
a parish responsibility and a matter of compulsory rates. By the 1570's the
leper hospital in Moulsham had become known as the `poor house'. Four cottages
in
Occasionally Sir Thomas
Mildmay as lord of the manor intervened to house the poor. In 1582, `of his
grace and mercy, at the humble request of divers tenants', he granted a small
piece of waste, sixty feet by twelve, lo build a cottage on, or place to
live', to Edward Nicoll, a poor man; and another piece `of his charity',
seventy-two feet by fourteen, to Thomas Brooke, a poor mason, to build a
dwelling on `for the relief and comfort of him and his family'.
(Grieve
1988:148)
Grieve sets out details of the Great Gaol Debate that
began in 1767. At that time, the town gaol was a timber structure,
formerly an inn, immediately adjacent to the
The second proposal, put forward by an eminent
This however was not the end as the supporters of the
White Horse proposal brought in William Hillyer, a rival surveyor, at this
juncture to criticize Dance's proposals: "He holds Mr Dance very cheap
and says he is only a good pencil man that understands nothing of estimates or
work ......" (Grieve 1994:158). Hillyer assured his sponsors that he
could design a gaol on the White Horse site, which would not `be dangerous or
obnoxious to the town". (Grieve 1994:158). The landowners, farmers and
graziers numbering 1200 then protested about the potential toss to them of the
hospitality of the White Horse on market day, the risk of spreading gaol
distemper to the public and the cost of water supply to a new gaol. Sir
William Mildmay, the principal opponent of the White Horse option, defended
his property rights in the market area and Rector Tindal argued against it on
the grounds that nothing should be done to put the town's water supply at
risk,
The parliamentary committee
was faced with a petition and design presented by Hillier and five
counter-petitions. The strongest evidence was that of Dr Benjamin Pugh MD who
argued that the "Old Spot` by the river at Moulsham gave rise to only
four deaths a year, the deep river made the disposal of fifth speedy and the
river made the extinguishing of fires in the gaol an easy matter. Most
strongly of all he argued for maintaining the cleanliness at all costs of the
water conduit through the town:
I
look upon the town of Chelmsford in it's present state, to be a remarkable
healthy town, and I believe it is chiefly owing to that current of water
running through the middle of it; for the town of Chelmsford lies very low;
two rivers run on each said [side] of it, chiefly surrounded by low meadows
and many stagnate ditches. Therefore the exhalations from the rivers, meadows
and ditches must be very great, and would certainly form a large body of
stagnate air in that large street, which must soon be very unhealthy. But this
current of water puts that air into continual motion, and carries it off. If
not from the conduit, how do you apprehend water can be brought to the White
Horse inn? I believe from no other place but from Burgess-well, the
fountainhead of the conduit of
(Grieve
1994:163)
This evidence won the day; the gaol was rebuilt on its
existing but extended site and the public water supply introduced by the
Friars was maintained.
Lewis explains that by the 1820's a new prison was
needed. A site of six acres at
Lewis comments on breakout attempts that took place in
1829, 1836 and 1837. For some of those who attempted escape, the penalty was
transfer via Romfond and Mile End to
In the construction of large houses, the
architect John Johnson had relationships with individually identified owners
such as Strutt at Teriing8, Bramston at Skreens in Roxwell, and
Brograve at
The following story shows what controversy and dispute
can be like:
Work
began in eariy August on the windows and doors at the side, but in September
Johnson's London foreman gave the Brograves an estimate for sashes in mahogany
instead of wainscot, which another carpenter considered excessive_ When
Brograve pointed this out, Johnson took offence. By 22 November Brograve was
complaining that after four months' work the job appeared only half done; he
had given the foreman notice and was inclined to call for Johnson's account.
[After acrimonious exchanges] Johnson submitted his account, including a
charge for surveying and making a plan of the house and a design for altering
the drawing room, which Brograve claimed he had not ordered. He continued to
demand an assurance that the sashes, which were also ill fitting, contained
(Briggs
1991:43-44)
To the modem mind there is some disquiet about the fad
that Johnson had both private clients such as the various house- and
landowners, while at the same time being county surveyor, responsible for
projects such as bridges. To us, '
Further insights into identity can be gained in
relation to industrial buildings from the story of the Marconi factory in
which owners, architects from
The
town's former cricket ground alongside the railway line in
(Lee
2001:8)
It is noticeable that in the case of the Marconi
building, the architects are named but none of the five hundred workmen. They
have no names or identity?
8.7
The place of the Aborigine people is so major that it
is the only matter considered here.
The texts show that a major facet of aboriginal
self-understanding, and therefore of identity, is based on the indissoluble
relationship between a people and their land. The relationship with the land
gives rise to the relationship between people. European misunderstanding of
that relationship was not a misunderstanding or dispute about ownership. It
was misunderstanding of a fundamental relationship and identity.
Pike says,
`To Aborigines the ground is not just something we walk upon. It is our total
environment. It is the mountains, rivers, sun, moon and stars - the entire
cosmos'. (Pike 1999:30). Fusescu, in a briefing for the
Tasmanian Parliament, says: `Land has traditionally been the basis of
Aboriginal identity. An individual's obligations in relation to preserving
land cannot be relinquished... Relationships with the group spring from this
fundamental relationship with the land'. (Fusesca 2000:1).
Living in relation to the land includes making shelter.
Plomley (1983) notes that shelters appear to have ranged in type from
an open lean-to to others which, in order to give greater protection in
exposed areas, were constructed from several layers of material and having
doorways. Archer notes that `The prevailing type in the south is or was
the bark... breakwind, formed by sheets of bark arched over, or by boughs or
both. This afforded little shelter, but the open side was turned round so that
it was away from the wind, thus sheltering the fire'. (Archer 1996:1). Archer
emphasises further that 'The two traditional shelters of an Aboriginal camp
are the yu (windbreak) and the wiltja (literally shade).... Neither in itself
is a dwelling... The fire, not the yu or the wiltja, symbolises the place of
dwelling'. (Archer 1996:17). Roth (1899), in a comprehensive review of
the work of earlier authors, speaks of the shelters that were vacated with the
arrival of fine weather as `frail' habitations.
Cowan (2000)
gives a fuller insight into the aboriginal approach to land. The Aborigines,
he explains, are nomads with a nomadic understanding of space and time. They
are not confined to living in one place. For them time consists of
'swift-perishing, never to be repeated moment[s]' (Cowan 2000:116), lived in
the presence of the eternal. These perceptions of space and time are
non-architectural and non-mathematical. They are at odds with those of
sedentary peoples. `The cultural history of sedentary peoples is one of
confronting the idea of wilderness and containing it so that it conforms to
defined canons of measure'. (Cowan 2000:116-7). Aboriginal people do not
confront the worid in that way. Thus they do not need buildings and towns to
protect them from the confronted environment. As there is no need for
permanent structures, shelters can be abandoned as soon as the immediate need
for them has ended.
This ancient, organic connededness between cosmos,
land, shelter, fire and dwelling was acutely disrupted by some of the
activities of Europeans in the nineteenth century. Attwood (2000)
describes how a European approach to the creation of a built environment was
imposed in one particular place across the
The
roomy mission house was situated at the head of the village and was by far the
largest building on the station; it was a symbol... of.... power:
The
mission house, the church, the school and the boarding house [for children]
were boarded off from the rest of the mission settlement by a white paling
fence. This construction of precisely fixed posts and rails was not only an
unambiguous statement of the missionary desire to impose their order on
Aborigine people; it was also... a way of separating Aboriginal children from
contact with their parents and elderly kin, and to prevent the transition of
cultural knowledge.
(Attwood
2000:45)
In the boarding house there was to be no communication
between boys and girls' accommodation. This was contradictory to Aboriginal
tradition that keeps children together until the onset of puberty. Within
dormitories there were high partitions between beds. In straight rows on two
parallel sides of the Village Green were twelve cottages. This design was to
identify the roles and responsibilities of the individual, rather than of
community. The individual was to replace the group as the fundamental moral
arbiter. Young Aboriginal men converted to Christianity were persuaded to
build their own individual houses, even though they might not have furniture
to put in them. A generation grew up in this situation, knowing no other. The
saving grace, perhaps, was that another world was close by:
Ramahyack... [was] located on
the edge of another spatial worfd, that of the river, lake and bush, a
seascape and a landscape which, for some time, retained familiar meanings and
from which Aboriginals continued to draw sustenance.
(Attwood
2000:54)
Boyce points
out that `the Church of England in
Price,
a Tasmanian Aborigine, has written on Aboriginal housing matters, as they
were experienced in Launceston between 1970 and 1979. For sometime she worked
with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. In relation to her own childhood she
says that her `earliest memories are of a dwelling, situated near a creek,
that consisted of three rooms in a weatherboar
d construction'. (Price 2000:158). Her father was in
hospital for the first five years of her life because a building had collapsed
on him. She visited Aborigine homes and houses, which authorities intended to
purchase for Aborigine occupation. For a time she was a member of the
Department of Housing's Aboriginal Housing Policy Committee: `[It] only seemed
to meet when a house was to be allocated to an Aboriginal family. We would
meet, look at the waiting list and decide on the priority, but if the director
didn't agree, then that family would not get the house. There was no one in
the Department who had any idea about Aboriginal issues.' (Price 2000:163)
Sanders concludes
the text on Australian Indigenous Housing on the following note of realism and
hope:
The
history of indigenous housing in
(Sanders
2000248)
8.8
Synthesis and centrifugal dynamic
This Section, and the dynamic cone represented by it,
has been particulariy powerful.
The biblical scene quickly moves from the lakeside at
Koester links the experience of blindness giving way to
sightedness to the Feast of Tabernacles and the great ceremonies of light.
Malina and Rohrbaugh see the altercations in the
The
power of this light, anti-society, relationship, and truth and love, well up
in Prior's critique of the misunderstandings and errors of colonialism into
which
Prisoners
and prisons are another kind of society within a society. Chelmsford argued
about where to build its new prison and Charles Meredith from his tiny
Tasmanian office struggled to keep convicts under discipline, while his family
experienced living first in the darkness of the Tasmanian bush and then in the
light of their beachside home.
The centrifugal force comes across powerfully and
chillingly, not only from the theology but from
the built environment materials themselves, in the questions posed by Brill,
slightly rephrased:
Who are these people?
Where have they come from?
Where are they going?
What do their lives mean?
The answers are written in the
stones of the
A second, more mundane thread comes
into the Section. Poor people in