The Salvific City
The New Jerusalem and the Moral Imaginary of Urban Built Environments
In: Religion and TheologySearch for other papers by Thomas W. Martin in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
This exploratory essay examines the cultural assumptions at the intersection of our multi-sensory lived experience in contemporary urban built environments, the impact of that experience on our imaginative world for our assumptions about a normative urban environment – what I call a moral imaginary – , how imagination guides urban construction, and the Christian West’s most normative utopian vision of urbanity, the New Jerusalem. This exploration takes place within an eclectic amalgam of theory focused on environmental ethics. The overall goal, using ecological hermeneutics, is to retrieve the voice of the Earth from beneath the streets of gold. Can the New Jerusalem be imagined as a city that offers salvation to the Earth?
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
“68% of the World Population Projected to Live in Urban Areas by 2050, says UN.” United Nations: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, News, 16 May 2018. https://un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html.
-
“Degree of Urbanization in the United States from 1790 to 2020, and with Projections until 2050.” Statista. https://statista.com/statistics/269967/urbanization-in-the-United-States/.
-
“House of Commons Rebuilding [Debate].” Hansard Commons, HC Deb 28 October 1943 vol. 393 cc403–473. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1943/oct/28/house-of-commons-rebuilding.
-
Auge, Mark. Non-Places: An Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Translated by John Howe. London; New York, NY: Verso Books, 2008.
-
Aune, David E. Revelation 17–22. Word Biblical Commentary 52C. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998.
-
Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1966.
-
Boring, M. Eugene. Revelation. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville, KY: John Knox, 1989.
-
Boxall, Ian. The Revelation of Saint John. Black’s New Testament Commentary. London: A&C Black, 2006.
-
Cox, Harvey. The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective. New York, NY: MacMillan, 1965.
-
Davis, Ellen F. Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
-
de Certeau, Michel. “Practices of Space.” Pages 122–145 in On Signs. Edited by Marshall Blonsky. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985.
-
Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. Nomadology: The War Machine. Translated by Brian Massumi. New York, NY: Semiotext(e), 1986.
-
Foucault, Michel. “Of Other Spaces.” Translated by Jay Miskowiec. Diacritics 16, no. 1 (1986): 22–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/464648.
-
Foucault, Michel. “Space, Knowledge, and Power.” Interview by Paul Rainbow. Translated by Christian Hubert. Foucault.info. https://foucault.info/documents/foucault.spaceKnowledgePower/
-
Gilson, Etienne. “Foreword.” Pages 13–35 in St. Augustine: City of God. Edited and introduced by Vernon J. Bourke. Foreword by Etienne Gilson. Translated by Gerald G. Walsh, Demetrius B. Zema, Grace Monahan, and Daniel J. Honan. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958.
-
Gorringe, T.J. A Theology of the Built Environment: Justice, Empowerment, Redemption. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487712.
-
Habel, Norman C. “Introducing the Earth Bible.” Pages 25–37 in Readings from the Perspective of Earth. Edited by Norman C. Habel. The Earth Bible Volume One. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2000.
-
Keller, Catherine. Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1996.
-
Keller, Catherine. God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005.
-
Kort, Wesley A. Place and Space in Modern Fiction. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004.
-
Lane, Belden C. Landscapes of the Sacred: Geography and Narrative in American Spirituality. Exp. ed. Baltimore, MD; London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
-
Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford; Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1991.
-
Maier, Harry O. Apocalypse Recalled: The Book of Revelation after Christendom. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002.
-
Malina, Bruce J., and John J. Pilch. Social-Science Commentary on the Book of Revelation. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000.
-
Martin, Thomas W. “The Silence of God: A Literary Study of Voice and Violence the Book of Revelation.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 41, no. 2 (2018): 246–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X18804435.
-
Reed, Jonathan L. Review of Rome the Cosmopolis, eds. Catharine Edwards and Greg Woolf. Review of Biblical Literature 01/2008. https://www.sblcentral.org/API/Reviews/3221_3613.pdf.
-
Reid, Duncan. “Setting Aside the Ladder to Heaven: Revelation 21:1–22:5 from the Perspective of Earth.” Pages 232–245 in Readings from the Perspective of Earth. Edited by Norman C. Habel. The Earth Bible Volume One. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2000.
-
Schneider, Mike. “U.S. Census Bureau Redefines the Meaning of Urban Areas in America,” PBS News Hour, Politics, 29 December 2022, https://pbs.org/newshour/politics/u-s-census-bureau-redefines-the-meaning-of-urban-areas-in-america.
-
Sheldrake, Philip. Spaces for the Sacred: Place, Memory, and Identity. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
-
Tuan, Yi-Fu. “Space, Time, Place: A Humanistic Frame.” Pages 7–16 in Making Sense of Time. Edited by Tommy Carlstein, Don Parkes, and Nigel J. Thrift. New York, NY: Wiley, 1978.
-
Winn, Mark A. Faith and Place: An Essay in Embodied Religious Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
-
Wirzba, Norman. The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age. Oxford; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 411 | 123 | 14 |
| Full Text Views | 39 | 6 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 76 | 13 | 0 |
The Salvific City
The New Jerusalem and the Moral Imaginary of Urban Built Environments
In: Religion and TheologySearch for other papers by Thomas W. Martin in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This exploratory essay examines the cultural assumptions at the intersection of our multi-sensory lived experience in contemporary urban built environments, the impact of that experience on our imaginative world for our assumptions about a normative urban environment – what I call a moral imaginary – , how imagination guides urban construction, and the Christian West’s most normative utopian vision of urbanity, the New Jerusalem. This exploration takes place within an eclectic amalgam of theory focused on environmental ethics. The overall goal, using ecological hermeneutics, is to retrieve the voice of the Earth from beneath the streets of gold. Can the New Jerusalem be imagined as a city that offers salvation to the Earth?
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 411 | 123 | 14 |
| Full Text Views | 39 | 6 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 76 | 13 | 0 |
