Wrappings of the Divine: Location and Vocation in Theological Perspective‪.‬

Tapestry: a metaphor The biblical narrative is a story that moves from creation to consummation, which is symbolized by two places: the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem. These two places are not only gifts but represent places where life flourishes and the divine donor is present. In neither is there a need for a demarcated sacred space; in neither is there a temple. But in between these two sites there is a pilgrimage, what Augustine called procursus, a journey through an ensemble of places that frame the narrative: fields, houses, deserts, and so forth. In the ambiguous experience of these places, divine presence (parousia) and absence (apousia) cross each other. And, of course, in the midst of it all is a place called Golgotha, the site where God surrendered God-self to the very gift that was given, for God so loved spaces and places as to fill them with divine presence (John 3:16); the Giver gave herself in the gift as the Gift itself; God became spacious in surrendering Godself up to the emptiness of a space.