A couple months ago I posted on new urbanism, mentioning a book by Philip Bess called Till We Have Built Jerusalem. New urbanism is “an American urban design movement that arose in the early 1980s intended to reform all aspects of real estate development and urban planning, from urban retrofits to suburban infill. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs, and to be walkable.” One takeaway from this movement is the notion that neighborhoods can be redesigned to promote community. Urban sprawl mitigates this kind of community feel.
New York City has picked up on these ideas in an effort to beautify and re-urbanize the city. David Taylor (same Taylor who put together the Transforming Culture conference) reviews Bess’ book in “The Good City” in Books and Culture. It’s well worth the read.
I love the ideas coming out of New Urbanism and Philip Bess’ reflections. The notion that our architecture and infrastructure betrays and shapes a certain life philosophy is very important. Cities used be places where children played and people gathered for good, social interaction. Too often, urban centers are now skyscraper gardens with little social space left for anything than after hours entertainment. What would it look like for your city, your neighborhood to cultivate a more community-sensitive setting?
Then there are the architectural implications of new urbanism for churches. Should we just build buildings based on their utility or give greater considerations to aesthetics? Do more ornate and context sensitive buildings really make a difference in the quality of church communities? What about the impact of church architecture on the unchurched? A recent survey shows that unchurched folks are more inclined to visit an aesthetically pleasing church building. Hmm. What is the way forward for the evangelical Church in America given the rise of new urbanism, the insights of Bess & Taylor, and good old common sense?
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 20, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Jon
If you haven’t already you should definitely check out Eric Jaconbsen’s (the info is a bit outdated he’s now pastoring in Spokane) book Sidewalks in the Kingdom.
April 21, 2008 at 12:52 pm
jdodson
thanks jon. I was intrigued by the book when it came out but didnt get it. perhaps I’ll check it out. Care to convince me? 🙂
April 21, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Jon
For starters I can vouch for Eric as an all around good guy who lives passionately what he teaches. (I misspoke earlier, he’s in Tacoma now, I confess, the NW is a blur of apples and rain to me.) He was both my professor and neighbor at Fuller and I enjoyed him in both roles. I haven’t read Bess’s book but my impression from reading reviews and comments elsewhere is that while they cover some similar ground my sense is that Eric approaches new urbanism from a more pastoral/evangelical perspective (he was pastoring a church when he wrote the book) using the language and ideas of new urbanism to open congregations to the idea that the built environment can have a profound impact on the way the gospel is lived out in their local contexts-or on the constraints that many environments might place on our ability to live out the gospel. He’s a good writer and again, helpfully pastoral – its the kind of book that can be easily worked through by a small group of city-dwellers who will have no problem grasping the new urbanist concepts and will be challenged by the lens of theological implication that Eric applies to them. Before you commit you can get a taste of his stuff from audio lectures here, here, or here.