The majority of humanity now lives in the built environment for the first time in our evolutionary history. How does this affect the relationship between human flourishing, the natural environment, and the built environment?

For the academic year 2020-2021 as part of its 5 year inquiry on global concerns, CTI will welcome architects, designers of the built environment, theologians, religion scholars, and other scholars in the humanities to conduct research on the relationship between religion and the built environment.

Video

"Human beings are spatial creatures who seek places of dwelling and ways of understanding their place in the world through the marking of ground."

Throughout history, architectural forms have been closely tied to the lives of migrating peoples. Whether the forms are churches, mosques, synagogues, kivas, or temples, they have served as the centerpieces around which immigrant communities have assembled, cultural traditions have been reinforced, and rituals celebrated. Architecture in this sense has always been closely tied to the search for meaning and belonging.

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David E. Lilienthal was the oldest son of Jewish immigrants. In 1920, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Indiana's DePauw University, where he was an accomplished light heavyweight boxer. His friends described him as "a unique combination of tenderness and toughness." After Harvard Law School, he pursued a career in law, particularly labor and public utility law. He came to national prominence for this leadership of the Tennessee Valley Authority (the federal corporation created by Congress in 1933 to provide economic development to a region hard hit by the Great Depression) and the Atomic Energy Commission (1946-1950). Among his hopes for CTI was that it would "throw some light on the practical problems facing the world."

CTI Member Brick Johnstone, Neuroscientist, and Daniel Cohen, Anthropologist and Scholar of Religion, share their journey of how working together in a transdisciplinary environment led to understanding connections between neuroscience and religious studies. Their findings were recently published in a new book, Neuroscience, Selflessness, and Spiritual Experience, Explaining the Science of Transcendence.

Listen to CTI's newest podcast here

Diagnosing Religious-Group Conflict, Viewing Law Through the Lens of Beauty, Discussing Islam and Violence, African American Christianity in the 21st Century, and more in our fall issue.

Read Fresh Thinking online by clicking here.

CTI invites research proposals in theology, architecture, and related disciplines.

Click here for more details and to apply.

Deadline December 1, 2019