First up is an excerpt from a great book titled Sidewalks in the Kingdom.
We do not see cities or traditional neighborhoods in this country because we have not lived in them or thought specifically about them for a long time. We tend to think of cities as abstractions - a city is a place where humanity is gathered in large numbers. And so our discussions about cities tend to be indistinguishable from discussions about crowds. What are the problems and pitfalls of humanity in its aggregate form? We've given very little thought to the physical structure of our cities and how that provides the framework for the human relationships that go on in these places. This intellectual oversight in our culture has led to bad policies, which in turn have made our cities harder to see. Consider the Federal Housing Administration's clear preference in their loan program for suburban-sprawl housing over urban neighborhoods and the ill-fated "urban renewal" program of the 1950's and 1960's, which destroyed the fabric of the urban core in favor of the inhumane, monolithic "projects." This oversight has been reflected in our theology as well. Try to find any concrete description of what actually constitutes a city in our myriad theologies of the city, and you will see what I mean. The time is ripe, therefore, for a theology of the city that takes into account its physical structure.
Question: What are the obstacles for pursuing biblical justice (freedom for the oppressed, peace in the midst of violence, renewal for the weary, restoration for the broken) in a place that is monolithically segregated?
