Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles

Last updated on: December 15, 2015 at 5:46 pm by Fred Clark

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles 2015-12-15T17:46:12-05:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Martin Filler writes about architecture for The New York Review of Books. He’s awed by the ambition, beauty, and seamless elegance of Grace Farms, a former Connecticut horse farm transformed into “an exquisitely realized exercise in integrated architectural and landscape design.”

Grace Farms, New Canaan, Connecticut. (Photo by Dean Kaufman from The New York Review of Books, click for full article.)

I’ll defer to Filler’s expertise and confirm that, to my unschooled eye, the place sure looks pretty. Click through to his review — “Faith in Good Taste” — and look at the gorgeous accompanying photos I’m sure you’ll agree.

Set amid a verdant, gently rolling eighty-acre former horse farm, Grace Farms is described on its website as “a welcoming new place … for people to experience nature, encounter the arts, pursue justice, foster community, and explore faith.” That is quite an idealistic agenda, and only the most cynical are likely to see this impressive undertaking as anything but a potential boon to contemporary society.

But I also have to agree with Filler’s sneaking suspicion throughout this review that maybe those hypothetical “most cynical” folks might have a point. Thus, in describing the purpose and function of this place, Filler resorts to a quote from a master of cynicism, saying this is a place where “human kindness is overflowing.”

Filler’s ambivalence comes, I think, from his architect’s eye for the marriage of beauty and utility, of form and function. And it’s tricky to decide whether this impeccably designed and executed facility is ideally suited for its function, because it’s difficult to say, precisely, what that function is supposed to be.

It has something to do with a church — “the nondenominational Grace Community Church,” and yet:

The connection between the two organizations is left vague by their adherents, who insist that Grace Farms is not a church. In keeping with this broader mission, the complex includes a library (which focuses on five themes — “Faith + Meaning,” “Art + Beauty,” “Justice + Ethics,” “Nature + Environment,” and “Community + Relationships”), a restaurant, tearoom, offices, and sunken indoor basketball court; there are also classrooms, meeting spaces, performance and art studios, and more offices in two nearby converted stables.

On one level, that all sounds wonderful. “Faith + Meaning”? Yes, please. “Art + Beauty”? I’m all for it. “Justice + Ethics”? A bit redundant, perhaps, but absolutely, yes. “Nature + Environment” and “Community + Relationships”? Awesome.

So why, like Filler, am I inclined to bristle with a Newmanesque skepticism at all this earnest beauty?

I think it’s not so much the question of “what is this place for?” as the question of “who is this place for?” We don’t see any people in all those gorgeous photographs of this dazzling place. And it’s hard to imagine populating those photos with anyone other than the populace of “the so-called Gold Coast of Fairfield County, which includes New Canaan, ranks sixth in the US in per-capita income and presumably is not in dire need of more libraries, sports facilities, or parkland.”

Attempt to populate those photographs in your mind’s eye and you’ll either be forced to confront questions of race and class, or else you’ll settle those questions, conclusively, by not doing so.

Perhaps that’s what separates the extravagant beauty of this place from the extravagant beauty of a cathedral, where the vast expense of such beauty is (in theory, at least) devoted ad majorem Dei gloriam, and the doors are open to all people (again, at least in theory).

Grace Farms is a beautiful property, but that beauty is someone’s property. It is owned by them because, after all, they paid for it.

And if they can own Art+Beauty and Nature+Environment, perhaps they can also now own the properties of Justice+Ethics, of Faith+Meaning, and of Community+Relationship.

Years ago I talked to Gene Rivers, a formidable black Pentecostal preacher/activist, after he spent a few days at the Aspen Institute. He said the experience was “terrifying.” Here was this gathering of brilliant elite progressive types laying out their utopian vision of the future and, in their imagined utopian future, black people did not seem to exist at all. They didn’t explain how they would “get rid of us,” Gene said, but that seemed to be an unspoken part of the master plan.

Grace Farms reminds me of that conversation because it provides another picture of a vaguely “progressive” utopia that, at the same time, seems to have gotten rid of the kinds of people who couldn’t afford to be there.

When I try to correct for that, try to imagine a more diverse crowd of people in these beautiful photographs of this beautiful place, I wind up picturing those people in the uniforms of Starfleet Academy cadets. It’s easier for me to people those pictures by imagining the utopian future of Star Trek — a world in which class has been, somehow, transcended — than it is by imagining the prospects of the church in Fairfield County.

Maybe that’s because I’ve spent too much time watching television. Or maybe that’s because I’ve spent too much time in American churches.

Here’s Martin Filler’s conclusion:

The extent to which religion gives shape to Grace Farms’ overall ethos may or may not be of overriding significance. But for all the thoughtfulness that has gone into its creation, one wonders … whether the expenditure of such immense sums, in the midst of almost unimaginably concentrated wealth, is the true path to a state of grace for those who would alleviate the sufferings of humankind.

class warfare

church

Previous Post

December 14, 2015

We just wanna be heard

Next Post

December 16, 2015 Republican primary debate discussion thread

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did God send to feed Elijah during the drought?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Camels Sheep Serpent Ravens