Thesis, Part 1: Abstract

As promised, I will begin posting the text of my thesis to this blog, perhaps on a weekly basis, if not more regularly. I welcome your comments and suggestions. 

If you prefer to read a tangible, printed version of my thesis, entitled, "Designing and Building Homes to Foster the 'Domestic Church': Catholic Principles for Residential Architecture," you may find it at the University of St. Thomas library. Current students and alumni are permitted to check out library materials; but I recommend you inquire at the circulation desk.

Without further adieu: 

For many, the term “modern-day family” might suggest a set of individuals, loosely bound together by law and/or biology, sometimes sharing a common living space or home, but still operating independent lives via technology, transportation and media. While this picture of family life may seem bleak, if not frighteningly accurate, the Catechism of the Catholic Church proposes a more optimistic view of the family as a kind of “domestic church” or “church in miniature.” What this suggests is that in spite of how modern families live, family life—and in particular Christian family life built upon the Sacrament of Matrimony—is inherently capable of making Christ known and loved throughout the world. And because of this, the Christian family has a role within society that places responsibility not only on individual families but also on society to protect the family as its most basic building block. So the question is, In what arena might these responsibilities be mutually supportive so as to create a more properly “human” society?

            Gaudium et spes states that “Man comes to a true and full humanity only through culture, that is through the cultivation of the goods and values of nature” (53). Residential architecture is an art form and a discipline by which natural goods and values are honed to create a cultural artifact, and more than that, a work of art by which truth, beauty and goodness can be manifest. Families create their own cultures out of their day-to-day activities. Informed by Christian principles, the culture of the family reaches out in self-giving love to the wider society, influencing and at times transforming human culture more broadly. Because family life is centered primarily around a kind of common life, and because this common life necessitates a shared living space, we can say that it is within a home that the family cultivates the goods and values of nature—which will include welcoming and nurturing new life—thereby cultivating a more fully human existence. So by living in a home—both a product and a shaper of culture—a family’s life is formed all the more, either as a support or a hindrance to a more human society.

            This essay examines how residential construction but particularly architecture can interact with a Catholic notion of family life as the domestic church in such a way as to effect a more human society. In particular it highlights three main principles by which both families and members of the home-design and building communities can shape their respective activities toward this goal; namely, hospitality, solidarity and sacramentality. By keeping these principles in mind, the author contends, both residential architecture as an art form and family life as a domestic church together will have a greater capacity for effecting a more human society and building a culture of life.

A Long Time Gone

It has been a long time since I attended to this blog--my own life has undergone a great deal of transition, with moving from place to place. And now, employed only on a contract basis, I have greater freedom and flexibility to return to this topic of residential architecture and the "domestic church," which is, it would seem, still relevant after 5 years.

These are certainly interesting financial times we live in. More than a year ago, in an attempt to take advantage of the "buyer's market," I was intensely engaged in my own search for a house. My reasons for such a purchase at the time included a desire to invest my money rather than lose it in rent every month, as well as my desire to establish some kind of permanent residence, to better weather the transition of losing one roommate after another to marriage or relocation.

By June I learned that my office of 100 employees would be closed; and I found myself agreeing to relocation to Boston for temporary continuation of my position. I thanked God for not letting me feel peace about any of the 40+ homes I had looked at, enough to go through with a purchase. 

This lack of peace was due to a few different things. First, the design of the homes themselves did not "feel" right to me, despite any other sufficiency in terms of rooms, size, price, or neighborhood. Something was missing--I could not see myself thriving there, as much as I would have adapted to the environs. Secondly, I realized that buying a home did not make sense for my life--homes suggest, and in this market require, some level of permanence. I knew that I was seeking a home so that I could BE permanent, not because I WAS permanent and wanted a living space that could support that. I realized that my dream to own a home with another with whom I can spend my life was not so insignificant after all.

Perhaps there are implications here for homes and family life. Certainly, any space can become a home, insofar as you put yourself into it. But not every type of home is suitable for every type of family situation. Families don't tend to last long in apartments, if they can help it, for good reason--reduced privacy, little chance to personalize for changing needs, fewer places to retreat from "togetherness." Plus, an apartment does not communicate what a family is about; namely, permanence. [That is, of course, when we speak of apartments in a Midwestern sense. Apartments in Manhattan, on the other hand, may serve as permanent family homes, partly for lack of anything other than apartments or apartment-style living in the vicinity.]

A single person owning a home is slightly different; what is missing, however, is the NEED for something more permanent. Rather, the need is perceived, not imposed; and so one chooses to own a home to communicate (to themselves, if no one else) an intention to be permanently somewhere--to renounce, on some level, what it means to be single and "unattached." 

More to come on our present economic and housing crises. And, expect installments of my master's thesis posted to this blog--I would gladly welcome your comments and ideas.

A Benedictine Connection?

Tonight I met with a woman who is a Benedictine oblate through St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn., and I gained some interesting insight about the Benedictine charism that may eventually tie in with my ideas about designing homes for real, Catholic family life.

My thesis, in a nutshell, suggests that there are three main principles (but a number of ancillary principles) by which residential architecture might best support the domestic church, and these are hospitality, solidarity, and sacramentality. In the Benedictine life, as I understand it, hospitality, community, and balance form part of the charism for both those in monasteries and the oblates living a lay life. Although I know very little about Benedictine spirituality, I am inclined to think there is a link here between what I propose in my thesis, and what has been an ongoing way of life for monastic communities for centuries.

Anyone who can shed additional light on Benedictine spirituality, particularly centered around the ideas of hospitality, community, and balance, please feel free to post! It would be good to flesh out these terms as they apply to the Rule of St. Benedict (pray for us!).

Welcome Home

Okay, perhaps not literally. But you are welcome to this site nonetheless. This site, on which I hope to build a conversation about designing homes that truly foster the "domestic church," and to which I invite your participation.

So what is this thrice-repeated term, domestic church? you ask. It is the way that the Catechism of the Catholic Church, following the lead of Lumen Gentium, has chosen to describe how the Catholic family IS in the world. It is a vision of the family as a "church in miniature." In other words, what the Church (big C) does on a large scale, the family is called to do on a smaller scale. What's even more crazy than this is that countless families have taken this seriously enough to do something about it.

I hope to highlight some of those families on this blog. And I hope to flesh out a bit more what it means to live as a domestic church. At which point it will be time to talk about how homes can best be designed and built to nurture and protect the family in its extraordinary role to assist the Church in leading souls to Heaven.