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If you’re listening to the Today Programme while browsing the morning papers, the chances are that you’ll be looking at property sections and personal finance columns, full of cheery news for homeowners that house prices are soaring again.

These seductive supplements can convince homeowners that hour by hour they are getting rich – especially if they live in London and the South East. Indeed it was reported this week that three bedroomed houses in the most expensive areas of the capital, such as Chelsea, have gone up by £729 a day over the past 12 months. House prices are on average nearly 11 per cent higher than a year ago.

What theologian Thomas Aquinas called "natural wealth" such as food, clothing, and shelter are of course vital to survive. There is nothing wrong with wanting to secure the physical well-being of yourself and your loved ones through using money to acquire a home. But the very British obsession with making vast profits from housing tempts people to measure their worth by their ownership of property. With websites offering ordinary home-owners the chance to check their property’s value day by day, this fascination can be something almost idolatrous. It’s rather like a 21st century version of the Israelites worshipping a golden calf.

So why does this false worship matter? Biblical stories suggest that such idolatry is a sin against God. But if God is omnipotent then he can’t be harmed or diminished by us making false gods. Rather, the wisdom of the Scriptures hints at something else: that if we end up obsessed by something material such as our house and its rising value, then we are diminishing ourselves.

Rather than thinking about its financial value, where we live should reflect the value of a home in a broader currency, as two recent ecclesiastical examples show. Pope Francis took one look at the apostolic palace in Rome after he was elected and decided he’d be too isolated. He prefers instead to rub shoulders with other people by living in a nearby residence.

In contrast the Church Commissioners had wanted the new bishop of Bath and Wells to live in a new home out of town rather move into the traditional bishop’s palace next door to Wells cathedral. Local people might have been expected to approve of foregoing the grand old building. Instead they protested and the decision has been overturned. And no wonder: where you live represents who you are and for the bishop that means being right at the heart of his community.

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