Introduction

A view in which matter and spirit, or matter and self are somehow connected, pervades the buildings of history. This view was most often rooted in religion, and was in some fashion or another God-centered. However, I believe the facts about this building effort, without needing a whole-hearted embracing of traditional religion, show us possible connections, and point the way to a foundation in which we may get a new view that allows us to see the world in its wholeness, and allows us to see our own relatedness, as a core issue in the character of matter.

Another summary of the books

• Book 1
  • historical examples from many cultures of the world as instances of living structure
  • structure these works have in common
• Book 2
  • process these works have in common
  • all truly living works are created by unfolding — a continuous structure-preserving process
• Book 3
  • kinds of process which are capable of creating life

Now, in Book 4, I shall come back to these great living works once again. There is a further aspect of these works, created so often in history, which I have not yet touched. It concerns the cosmology within which these works were created, and the concepts of our relatedness to matter. In the vast majority of cases, the world which have life and which stand, for us, as supreme examples of living structure — were created in a mystical-religious context.

(Page 31)