God and Enchantment of Place

by David Brown

"In this book David Brown seeks to recover the importance of areas of human experience that were once regarded as central to people's experience of God but have since become marginalized. The sociologist Max Weber spoke of the disenchantment of the world as the inevitable consequence of the modern tendency to view everything in terms of its value solely as an instrument towards some further goal, and in this modern Christians are often no better than their secular counterparts. Enchantment can, however, return, Brown suggests, if God being mediated through all of creation (human and divine) is once again valued in its own right. Here Brown examines how this might occur with respect to place in all its various forms: nature, landscape painting, architecture, town planning, maps, pilgrimage, gardens, and sports venues. The issue is explored over a great range of history and context. While the focus is mainly on Christianity, examples are also drawn from Hinduism, Islam, and the classical