![]() ![]() Originally or authentically, therefore, sacred places ought to have had the power to evoke an affective response. The tradition articulated by Friedrich Schleiermacher and developed by Rudolf Otto links the perception of holiness to religious emotion. This view of sacred space as a lens for meaning implies that places are sacred because they perform a religious function, not because they have peculiar physical or aesthetic qualities. In short, a sacred place comes into being when it is interpreted as a sacred place. A shrine that is the focus of religious activity on certain occasions may be ignored at other times. Similarly, a house is a functional space, but in its construction, its design, or the rites within it, it may be endowed with religious meaning. As such, it is the ritual place at which an unwanted spirit can be expelled or the help of the spirits obtained. In traditional Maori culture, for example, the latrine marks the boundary between the world of the living and that of the dead. Sacred space does not even exclude nonsacred space, for the same place may be both sacred and nonsacred in different respects or circumstances. It includes spaces that can be entered physically, as the outer geography of a holy land, imaginatively, as the inner geography of the body in Tantric yoga, or visually, as the space of a ma ṇ ḍala. It includes places that are constructed for religious purposes, such as temples or temenoi, and places that are religiously interpreted, such as mountains or rivers. These symbols describe the fundamental constituents of reality as a religious community perceives them, defines a life in accordance with that view, and provides a means of access between the human world and divine realities.Īs meaningful space, sacred space encompasses a wide variety of very different kinds of places. Smith has suggested the helpful metaphor of sacred space as a "focusing lens." A sacred place focuses attention on the forms, objects, and actions in it and reveals them as bearers of religious meaning. To understand the character of such places, Jonathan Z. The rituals that a people either practice at a place or direct toward it mark its sacredness and differentiate it from other defined spaces. A sacred place is first of all a defined place, a space distinguished from other spaces. ![]()
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