544 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



The wisdom and challenge thus expressed promise us as a people 

 under God, to move even more directly to the roots of a concern for 

 beauty. 



To preserve what has been given is an element of stewardship. 

 This has a religious basis. To reclaim and re-create beauty is also 

 rooted in our religious traditions. 



Whereas the Christian, in his response to God's deed in Christ 

 involves a concern for the natural world and for human life, our 

 strength is from the Judaic tradition as well. We find recorded in 

 Holy Writ that God "... has made everything beautiful in his 

 time . . . ." (Eccles. 3: 11 K. J.) Our Judaic-Christian heri- 

 tage also calls for the recognition that God is acting in the realm of 

 the arts and of culture to fulfill it and to realize its full potential. 

 With such a theological basis, therefore, it would be well to call the 

 attention of the delegates of this significant conference to the fact 

 that representatives of all religious faiths Catholic, Orthodox, Prot- 

 estant, and Jewish have joined with the American Institute of 

 Architects in making a proposal for the establishment of a Center 

 for Interf aith Research on Religious Architecture. 



As a preamble to this proposal we jointly agreed on this statement: 



When we build religious buildings, we do not begin with archi- 

 tecture or the architect. We begin with what we believe about God 

 and our reasonable response to building in our time and place. We 

 must realize that we do not worship in our religious buildings but that 

 we also worship with them. If we do not know what we believe or 

 if we do not believe earnestly or deeply ... or, if we are unable to 

 give a reason for the faith that is in us, we cannot inform the archi- 

 tect or open him to inspiration. In view of the rapidly changing 

 nature of our society and the ever increasing investment of funds in 

 religious buildings, it is deemed advisable that a thorough study of 

 the situation be undertaken. 



The purpose of such a study is : 



The promotion of a religious architecture and art, through the ma- 

 terials and techniques presently available expressing a meaningful 

 and spiritual affirmation and manifesting a living tradition in forms 

 that speak in a positive way to our contemporary society. 



We believe that this proposal is in harmony with the President's 

 Message on Natural Beauty. Moreover we hope that the chairman 

 of the White House conference concurs and would encourage the 

 establishment of such a Center for Interfaith Research on Religious 

 Architecture. 



