Architecture and Theology

The dynamic relationship between art and theology continues to fascinateand tochallenge, especially when theology addresses art in all of its variety. In Architecture and Theology: The Art of Place , author Murray Raeturns tothe spatial arts, especially architecture, to investigate how the art forms engaged in theconstruction of our built environment relateto Christian faith. Rae does not offer a theology of the spatial arts, but instead engages in a sustained theological conversation with the spatial arts. Because the spatial artsare public,visual, and communal, they wield an immense but easily overlookedinfluence. Architecture and Theology overcomes this inattention by offering new ways of thinking about the theological importance of space and place in our experience of God, the relation between freedom and law in Christian life, the transformation involved in God's promised new creation, biblical anticipation of the heavenly city, divine presence and absence, the architecture of repentance and remorse, and the relation between space and time. In doing so, Rae finds an ample place for theologyamidst the architectural arts.

In the course of his exploration of how architecture might engage theology, Rae provides an effective critique of modernity and its emphasis on individualism and rationalism, its rejection of history and tradition, and its dualistic rejection of the material world. -- Claude N. Stulting, Jr. -- Reading Religion, Architecture and Theology opens with a lucid exploration of what 'dwelling' means for communities, and moves towards ways of understanding freedom, renewal, belonging, and time by showing how theological architecture is, and how architectural theology is. -- Ayla Lepine -- Church Times, Murray Rae's most recent book, Architecture and Theology: The Art of Place , is a storehouse of insight. Though the book's title may seem to suggest an exclusive audience, thoughtful readers from all disciplines would find this work worth their time. For those with artistic sensibilities, Rae's work is an absolute delight. For others, for whom art and architecture are simply curiosities, his work is a warm invitation to look more closely at the world we inhabit as well as a guide for discovering wonders in the woodwork and 'angels in the architecture.' -- Jessica J. Schroeder -- Denver Journal, Here is a book that repays attention. It ranges widely, and in the end it left me with the appealing thought that archi­tecture could well be an art form that articulates both our need for redemp­tion as well as our need to perceive that we dwell in an ordered cosmos. -- Christopher Irvine -- Art and Christianity, Rae does indeed survey a remarkable number of architectural concepts, models for urban development, and spans the history of architecture from classical Greece to the still incomplete Sagrada Família Basilica. That he does so without overwhelming the architectural novice is noteworthy; that he can simultaneously offer a thorough and thoughtful engagement with theology, ethics, and postmodern philosophy is nothing short of remarkable. -- Sara E. Evans -- Pacific Journal of Theological Research

Murray A. Rae is Professor of Theology at the University of Otago in New Zealand.