18 October
Dear Friends,
In his book Cities of God, the former Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford, Graham Ward, sets out to map a much-needed theology of the city. In the introduction, he already points out how city and text go hand in hand. The earliest known form of writing comes from what was perhaps the earliest city, founded by the Sumerians in the fourth millennium BCE. The proto-cuneiform tablets from this city of Warka, later known as Uruk, show the connection between writing and urban life. As Ward notes, the emergence of writing and literature are urban phenomena. When the classical city collapsed in the Late Roman Empire and people in Western Europe began leaving cities for rural enclaves, schools closed and literary culture declined.
What Ward wants to draw attention to, however, is that this relationship between city and writing also gave rise to the writing of “imaginary cities, ideal cities, cities of desire, literary cities.” “The city” became a dominant symbol in literature. The city produces and promotes itself through symbols and symbolic actions: “the building of this bridge, the election of this woman, the labour of this man, the schooling of this child.” In a sense, we might say the city “writes itself.” As Ward puts it: “It is a text written by all those who walk down its streets, drive down its boulevards, plan its future, build its reputation and, more generally, impact upon its mapped-out body.”
As we move towards the celebrations of Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary, we might ask: what imaginations, ideals, and desires are written into our city? What countless stories shape the way we think about Amsterdam. And, in turn, how do they shape the way we think about ourselves, about our church, about God?
For the 750-year celebration, the organisers have created a webpage dedicated to telling the stories of our city. Perhaps this is the best possible definition of Amsterdam: the stories of everyday people going about their life and shaping what the city is. It includes, for example, the story of Devine, an opsporingsambtenaar working for Handhaving, who walks the streets five days a week offering help to those in need. Or the story of Teun Verhoek, who works with individuals with acute autism in Reigersbos. Then there is Marcel from Driemond, who joined the Jubal Stichting, plays the alto horn, and devotes much of his life to making music on King’s Day or at serenades at the Town Hall. Or Rosemary Owusu-Agyemang, a social worker helping people understand the Dutch language and bureaucracy. These, and so many others, are the stories that make Amsterdam Amsterdam.
How is your own story shaping, writing, our city? How is your everyday, unique, and wonderful life contributing to the imagination of this city we, as church, call home?
See more Amsterdam stories at: https://amsterdam750.nl/verhalen/
Marius Louw