The first part of Bartholomew's book focuses on the biblical theology of 'place-making'. The damage that was done in Gen 1-3 is slowly working its way to Rev 22 and the new heavens and the new earth. The interplay between the cities in the Old Testament are key throughout the narrative, particularly Jerusalem and Babylon. Interestingly in Gen 1-2 Eden is described as a garden, but John the river as flowing out of a city (Rev 22).
The second part of Bartholomew's book looks at the theological development of place-making throughout Christianity. How space was developed before the modern era is particularly important for our thinking today, but the modern and postmodern attempts to make place significantly challenge us today. Modernism really sounded the death knell for place-making, but postmodernism has really reinvigorated it. Postmodernism strives to think in terms of place in light of the community's narrative. For Christianity, that narrative would be the biblical one.
Bartholomew argues that we don't repel some of the ideas that came out of the modern period, but that we reorganize them. For instance, globalization of the 80's and 90's has done some damage, namely the Western's desire for goods on the cheap and China's ability to provide those goods on the cheap but at the cost of global pollution has caused incalculable damage. On the other hand, China might be able to produce solar energy at a rate that using solar energy may make more economic sense.
The third part focuses on various applications that Christians today can place-make, namely the city, the house, the garden, the church, the university. Bartholomew really challenges the notion that a practical theology is largely connected to what we think about who we are and who we are in relationship to God and his creation. We were created to have dominion over the world and to care for it. Oftentimes because of our sin, the world around us groans, but we ignore it.
