Home, homelessness and the art of dwelling in wounded places as a wounded creation

Abstract

Dwelling in a place one can call home is not only a basic human right but also a profound longing – the desire for connection, protection, and rest, a place to experience sabbath. Yet, does such a place exist? It certainly exists in longing, dreams, and hopes, as Freud suggested in Civilisation and Its Discontents. Home, or Heimat, is a place of longing, marked by the sense of loss – paradise lost – or by the dream of arriving there in a future, eschatological kingdom or kin-dom, a realm for kindred spirits to dwell in harmony. Home is thus either the place lost or the place to come. This longing has been filled in various ways by ideologies and religions, each promising either a return to a lost paradise or the coming of a future realm of peace and well-being. Yet, what is rarely asked in these visions is why humanity is united by this sense of loss that gives rise to longing. Throughout history, powerful groups have sought to fill this longing with meaning, sometimes even claiming universality for their vision. However, the only true universal seems to be the lack itself – the Unheimlichkeit of being, the homelessness of being. Can only a human be homeless, or can a place itself be homeless? Can the very place of being be something that is lacking? If so, how does this shape the art of dwelling, making it a fragile art – not against lack and brokenness, but with them?
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The public is a space of alienation, where identity is not the focus, but encountering oneself in our nakedness, which is vital for universal equality and non-moralistic solidarity. This article advocates for unheimlich, or public theology, addressing homelessness in relation to community theologies.