In our reflection of Jesus and the scriptures, we are given a doctrine by which to live and a narrative explaining why we should abide this doctrine.
Greeley, a.M. (2001). Sacred Place, Sacred Time, exc. From the Catholic Imagination. University of California Press.
In 2001, Andrew Greely published the Catholic Imagination and with it, the excerpt that we consider here. Entitled "Sacred Place, Sacred Time," this carries a similar theme to the work by Cunningham & Egan, making particular reference to the visible presence of God in the surrounding works and creations of the men who worship him. In a compelling description of the city of Koln, the Greely selection lays out the assessment that even in a secular context where survival has been a dominant theme through generations of warfare, spirituality is in stark evidence to the beholder.
Again, we see...
Greely asserts that cities throughout history and across the globe have manifested this visible spirituality as a symbol of their survival. Accordingly, the selection asserts that such cities "illustrate the key component of Catholic imagination -- sacrimentality, the presence of God in all creation. One cannot isolate the Dom from the history of its city. Koln is called 'the holy city' not because its people are particularly virtuous but because it witnesses the presence of God lurking everywhere in creation." (Greely, p. 24)
This assertion points to a critical theme in Greely's work, indeed in the Catholic faith at large. That is, even in contexts where adherents lead largely secular lives, the neighborhoods, communities and cities around them will provide self-perpetuating evidence of Catholicism's spiritual permeation.
