Excellent. An awful lot here but much of it speaks my language! Brueggemann and Jennings alone. Pierre Lenfant’s choices in designing the district of Columbia’s original Street layout would be an interesting counterpoint. You might also be interested in this gathering.— happening this week!— hosted by CNU.
Thanks so much, Cort. Jennings and Brueggemann forever. Both have helped my thinking a lot.
I love D.C. Lots of mass transit and that height restriction that helps make it more walkable. L'Enfant's angles help, and the alleys help, but I'd like courtyards at the center of more blocks. At least D.C. fought off the Interstate more than any other city I'm aware of. Here's a great article on the effects of D.C.'s planning by an urban planner I follow: https://legaltowns.substack.com/p/dcs-continental-urban-notes?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Whoa! Not a quick read, though well said. -- Luke’s periodic sentence reduces Rome to mere backdrop. The word of God bypasses the grid, seeking the "illegible" wilderness instead. Jefferson’s lines commodified land, but community requires "gothic space"—the irregular, figural gaps where the sacred settles. To design for freedom, planners must build nests, not just blocks. -- Thanks again, Bryce.
Bryce, I no sooner finished thinking about your fine piece here, "Designing for Public Freedom," than I came across an article in the latest First Things, titled "When the Bells Stop Ringing." You may be interested. To me, it reads like a complementary piece, well-suited to be read after your own.
"When the Bells…" is about what happens when the institutions and shared practices that once formed a common life—and inhabited what you call “Gothic space,” forms that shaped attention and common purpose—fall silent, leaving behind a thinner, more privatized world, where a shared core is reduced to décor and Big Macs.
William, thanks for pointing me to Curtin's piece. It gets to the roots of the decline of America's ethnic churches, and it eschews the "All the Indians died off" narrative the dominant culture seems to tell about other cultures that struggle to survive in it. The article points to the Iraqi Christian and Coptic communities that have thrived in the U.S. of late. It does speak about the same political valances at stake as Milbank's notion of Gothic space. It also introduces me to an intersection between my essay here and my research into the beautiful Coptic community in Nashville that I had never imagined. And it gives me more to think about with respect to what it calls "the American nationalist imagination," something I'd like soon to address more directly than I have to date. A really satisfying article. Thank you again so much!
Excellent. An awful lot here but much of it speaks my language! Brueggemann and Jennings alone. Pierre Lenfant’s choices in designing the district of Columbia’s original Street layout would be an interesting counterpoint. You might also be interested in this gathering.— happening this week!— hosted by CNU.
https://www.faithproperty.org/faith-place-gathering
Thanks so much, Cort. Jennings and Brueggemann forever. Both have helped my thinking a lot.
I love D.C. Lots of mass transit and that height restriction that helps make it more walkable. L'Enfant's angles help, and the alleys help, but I'd like courtyards at the center of more blocks. At least D.C. fought off the Interstate more than any other city I'm aware of. Here's a great article on the effects of D.C.'s planning by an urban planner I follow: https://legaltowns.substack.com/p/dcs-continental-urban-notes?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
Forgot to say, I had no idea anything like Faith Property existed anywhere. Thank you much.
Whoa! Not a quick read, though well said. -- Luke’s periodic sentence reduces Rome to mere backdrop. The word of God bypasses the grid, seeking the "illegible" wilderness instead. Jefferson’s lines commodified land, but community requires "gothic space"—the irregular, figural gaps where the sacred settles. To design for freedom, planners must build nests, not just blocks. -- Thanks again, Bryce.
Bryce, I no sooner finished thinking about your fine piece here, "Designing for Public Freedom," than I came across an article in the latest First Things, titled "When the Bells Stop Ringing." You may be interested. To me, it reads like a complementary piece, well-suited to be read after your own.
"When the Bells…" is about what happens when the institutions and shared practices that once formed a common life—and inhabited what you call “Gothic space,” forms that shaped attention and common purpose—fall silent, leaving behind a thinner, more privatized world, where a shared core is reduced to décor and Big Macs.
William, thanks for pointing me to Curtin's piece. It gets to the roots of the decline of America's ethnic churches, and it eschews the "All the Indians died off" narrative the dominant culture seems to tell about other cultures that struggle to survive in it. The article points to the Iraqi Christian and Coptic communities that have thrived in the U.S. of late. It does speak about the same political valances at stake as Milbank's notion of Gothic space. It also introduces me to an intersection between my essay here and my research into the beautiful Coptic community in Nashville that I had never imagined. And it gives me more to think about with respect to what it calls "the American nationalist imagination," something I'd like soon to address more directly than I have to date. A really satisfying article. Thank you again so much!