ABSTRACT
Space offers a foundational condition for anything that exists. Places can only emerge in space. Only there, time can flow forward; only there, life can flourish. In their spatial surroundings, the living are born to move, develop, and fade away. Through, in, and with their natural and built environments, human beings develop as images of God, and theology as a discursive reflection on the experiences with and the images of God takes place. The rise and development of strong environmental movements, with their challenges to politics and economics, and the emergence of environmental science offered further strong impulses to society and academia, which accelerated and deepened the reflections not only on "our common future" but also on the natural space that offers its conditions. In environmental science, the notion of a "natural space" has created nearby miracles by allowing to relate many different observation data to each other and to integrate them into one common frame.
