Friends,
Chad DeWitt is a member of Montclair Presbyterian Church and he is an architect whose design firm, Framestudio, has employed a marvelous expression of Calvinism in an effort to recruit a new architect for employment:
Wherever the contest takes place, I am in favor of any effort to combat ugliness, and what I like about Chad’s employment opportunity slogan is that it recognizes the possibility that secular work can serve a divine purpose. This is an entirely Calvinist point of view.
Prior to the emergence of Calvinist thought, the options for an architect desiring to glorify God through his or her work were more or less limited to building churches and monasteries. Calvinism certainly has celebrated beautiful houses of worship over the years (provided they didn’t look too Catholic), but our tradition also has promoted the idea that an architect glorifies God whenever she or he imagines and designs beautiful and useful spaces of any kind. So when an architect’s work renders a house that is welcoming and attractive, or a work space is useful and pleasant, the architect has engaged in divine work.
And by creating beautiful and useful spaces the architect is not just designing structures. Rather, by working mindfully and skillfully, the architect is fighting Ugliness in all of its forms. It may be a bit of a stretch to say there is a direct connection between 70’s era acoustic ceiling foam and war crimes, but I have faith that when we live and work in beautiful and useful spaces—when Chad and his design firm are doing their job—that the architectural beauty surrounding us will make us impatient with ugliness of every kind. That the thoughtful placement of a window might inspire us to fight mass incarceration, for example, or perhaps a well-designed gable will prod us into action around homelessness in the Bay Area.
So many thanks to Chad and his employees at Framestudio for their good Calvinist reminder. May we all fight the ugliness!
God’s Peace,
Ben
P.S. If you know an ambitious and skilled architect who is looking for work, send them Chad’s way.