I live in Sydney, which means I am compelled to live and breathe real estate. My interest is piqued by special newspaper supplements, home improvement television and the headlining news of adjustments in interest rates. Even social conversation is frequently hijacked by concerns of who is looking for what, and who is doing up which so that they can sell it for something else. The ‘built environment’ has so filled our horizons that we cannot see past what we have built, bought or desire.

In a culture so fixated with the built environment, careful holistic thinking is important. Tim Gorringe attempts it in his book, A Theology of the Built Environment: Justice, Empowerment, Redemption. Gorringe reflects theologically on the built environment as a whole. He pulls together a vast array of secular and theological sources to examine the nature of this built environment we live in and to propose how the Christian church should act within it and work to reform it. His basic thesis is that only as we understand the Trinitarian nature of God can we properly understand how to engage ethically with the built environment.

Buy the book here.

Files: cox-renovating.pdf