Leigh Hatcher chats with Dr. Elizabeth Farrelly on the topic of how much the vibe of the building, a style of meeting, could shape one's Christian faith?
Columnist, essayist and architecture critic Dr Elizabeth Farrelly raises some thought provoking points about God, despite hovering between atheism and agnosticism herself. She talks about her personal observationf of how the aesthetics of the church affect her ideas on Christianity.
Dr. Farrelly compares the aesthetics between the more modern Barnabas Church in Broadway and the traditional church building of Christchurch St. Laurence on Railway Square. While the more modern construct is beautiful and compelling, it's outward message can be ambiguious, making it mistaken as a tax office, vet, or yet another modern building. The more traditional building however presents itself as a ceremonial, grand and is perhaps even shrouded with a sense of mystery. Of the two, Dr. Farrelly would be inclined to make decisions on her belied based on the aesthetics, since her ideals about God, is that he is mysterious and hard to know. A traditional church building reinforces that belief and gives her that sense of mystery and transcendence about God.
Leigh responds by encouraging Dr. Farrelly to look further into the Christian belief, and that God is both transcendent and accessible in the Trinity, in agreement with the minister of Barneys, where he states that a church building will not give us the true experience of a transcendent God, but only through Jesus Son of Man.
Listen more to the dialogue below, as heard on Open House.