First Things RSS Feed - M. Francis Mannion https://www.firstthings.com/author/m-francis-mannion en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:54:22 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/m-francis-mannion 60 The Church and the City https://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/02/the-church-and-the-city https://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/02/the-church-and-the-city Tue, 01 Feb 2000 00:00:00 -0500 Since the official validation of Christianity in the fourth century, ecclesiastical leaders have built places of worship in central and highly visible locations. They were not motivated just by grandeur and power. In addition, they sensed that, to be authentic, Christian presence in the world must be public. For over 1,500 years, church buildings have been central and unifying elements in the configurations of cities, towns, and villages. Though in a world of skyscrapers and office towers churches are no longer so prominent, the public role of church buildings to sacramentalize the heavenly city and redeem the earthly one remains critically important and demands new and compelling expression. (What I say here about church buildings is true of the Church at all levels. Accordingly, in what follows the word “church” moves freely from reference to particular local institutions to ecclesiastical life generally.) 

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