CENTER, Volume 15: Divinity, Creativity, Complexity

Architects are rarely invited into the theological debate the way scientists often and artists sometimes are, this despite the obvious analogies between design and Design. Even when they are designing places of worship, the shape of their own faith is given no special place, nor the theological implications of what they are doing regardless of faith. (Indeed, mention "architecture" and "religion" or "God" in the same sentence, and the mind automatically flips to churchs and synagogues, and then to fifty cliche forms.) The idea behind this volume was to blaze a new trail in thinking rationally about religion, theology, and everyday life. It opens, new avenues of debate and discussion about the meaning of religious faith in the 21st century. For not only architects, of course, but also film-makers, writers, composers, painters, scientists, institution-builders, and inventors create-design-with similar if not the same ethical constraints and incentives. The desire of everyman to be creatively involved in life is, we submit, an essentially religious desire. Understanding why and how this is so through architecture might make this clearer to all, and more realizable.