Modelling Christian Spirituality as Transversal Urban Space

Abstract

From the late twentieth to the early twenty first Century, mass urbanisation has challenged humans to assume fully the label urbis incola. Despite humanity’s urban inculcation, City Spirituality and Urban Theology stills seem peripheral theological endeavours. One reason for this may be a lack of rigid theory on how Christian Spirituality might contribute transversally to the broader urbanity of the city. This article wants to contribute to constructing Christian Spirituality as such a transversal space, by modelling it as a system of general complexity, constrained by the membranes of Biblical Spirituality and City Spirituality. Here, Biblical Spirituality nominates the rich memory of Christian tradition, shaping and producing anticipatory qualities, while City Spirituality deals with the reality of the city as assemblage, symbol, and a hoped-for ‘city to come’. Christian Spirituality, thus constrained, can act as springboard for further unfolding thought by the religious, the not-so-religious and the atheist urbanite.

Keywords

• Christian Spirituality
• Biblical Spirituality
• City Spirituality
• General Complexity