Emily Cole: Landscapes of the Sacred Introduction

In Belden C. Lane's Landscapes of the Sacred, the reader is urged to participate as a means of 'human understanding' (p. 4) of the wilderness, whether it be culturally, religiously, or ecologically. Lane cites cultural geographer Yi-Fu Tuan's theory of topophilia ('the attachment we often feel for particular places' (p. 6)), which I believe everyone has experienced at one point in their lives. For example, I consider only one place to be my true home, and one for which I feel this attachment Tuan wrote about in his 1974 work, Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. This place is a bungalow in a small beach community, set right on the bay front of Jamaica Bay in Queens, New York. From my porch one can see the New York City skyline, Empire State Building and all, and even the historic Coney Island to the left horizon. But what makes this house so special is its history- over 80 years of family memories have been made, and three generations have grown up there. Gabriel Marcel states that "an individual is not distinct from his place; he is that place," (p. 6) and nothing applies more perfectly to this house. I've moved around eight times, and I've never lived in the same place twice; this is why my beach house means so much to me, its the once place to which I have returned summer after summer, and until finally settling down in my home in Northern Virginia, it was the only place I knew for sure I would return to, and that is a comforting thought growing up. Returning to a certain place is about comfort, after all. Lane explains how its a very common recurring theme in dreams, "the seat that cannot be found- the anxiety that one feels in seeking his or her appropriate place at a meeting, on a plane, at a formal banquet," (p. 7). How true, that we all worry about where to sit in everyday aspects of our lives; in addition to Lane's examples, I think of finding a seat in class, and then worrying still in every subsequent class unless there is an assignment for where to sit. Also, as a little girl I remember arguing with my sisters about getting the same seats in our mom's van, as if this would determine so much in regards to an upcoming errand or car trip. Now, being almost 20 years old, I translate that into calling "shotgun!" every time I'm a passenger in someone else's car- its all about knowing where you will be and being comfortable about that knowledge.

"Our destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things," Henry Miller once stated (p. 12), and how right he was in regards to intangible places, ones where we cannot physically go. When someone is in a place of depression or sadness, for example, it doesn't mean they've literally gone somewhere else; it means that their outlook on life is simply from a different viewpoint, and they might be looking at things in a negative way. This destination, however, deserves a more positive connotation, and I believe that Miller meant for one to take events in life as they are, then take a second look, and arrive at a place completely different.

Destruction of Sacred Place

Matthew Latham, On sacred space.

In Landscapes of the Sacred, Belden Lane starts out his journey of the sacred with an explanation of exactly what sacred place is. To Lane, it is not a building or obvious structure, but simply a place. I prefer to refer to the area that is sacred as space rather than place. Place refers to much to the features of an area. Space, on the other hand, is simply an area it cannot be bounded. Space is created, place is given. Lane makes many references to the works of Mircea Eliade while describing what sacred space is. To Eliade, "sacred place constitutes a break in the homogeneity of space; This break is symbolized by an opening by which passage from one cosmic region to another is made possible." Lane goes on to say, "sacred place becomes the point at which the wondrous power of the divine could be seen breaking into the world's alleged ordinariness." In short -The sacred is simple place, but in that simple place, a connection can be made to something greater.Sacred place cannot be destroyed, but it can be moved, moved to wherever it pleases. Take for example the curious case of the Warwick Baptist Church.

Thursday morning September 10, 2009 the Warwick Baptist Church burnt to the ground. As the fire raged members stood around watching firefighters risk their lives trying to save the building they loved so much. "At first it was a struggle to try and pray and seek God and what God is doing in this," sad the pastor of the church Robert Wilson." But as flames reduced their beloved place of worship to the ground Wilson began to realize that a building is exactly that, a building. "This is a church. It's a building. The true crux of it all is the membership." Wilson realized that what made the building special to him and his congregation was not the ascetics of the place, but the sanctity of the space, and that can never be destroyed. Chris Gill, an associate pastor for another congregation that also used the facility added, "God can do wonderful things out of it, so I'm at peace with it." The congregation will rebuild the church and create another sacred space, by practicing their faith, customs, rituals, and love.

Sacred space cannot be destroyed, it can only be reborn into something even more beautiful.

September 15, 2009

by, Matthew Latham

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/local_wavy_newportnews_church_fire_20090910

Axioms of scared places according to Landsscapes of the Scared posted by Diana Cox

The author in chapter one points out many different axioms or rules which are able to guide the student of American spirituality to understand the character of a scared place.
I thought these rules would be informative for anyone writing a paper about a sacred place. The first rule or axiom is that a scared place is not chosen, it chooses. For an example a place can “create” people. People can find religion, peace, hope, or be forever changed in a scared place. On the other hand people can create the place. People build places for the purpose of something spiritual; whether it is a place of worship or a place of ritual. The second axiom is that a scared place is ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary. Religion and ritual acts bring the place to life, for example the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Three different religions have worshipped there and hold that place to be a scared place in their religion. Islam believe it is the Dome of the Rock is a place where the prophet Muhammad descended into the seventh heaven, Judaism and Christianity believe it is the place where Abraham tried to sacrifice his son Isaac. These rituals bring the Dome of the Rock to life. The third axiom is that a scared place can be tried upon without being entered. A person can occupy a space without dwelling in the space. Ones symbolic participation in a place of significance is never totally available to scrutiny. How can one measure another’s participation in a scared place? The answer is you can not, how someone participates is not the important part of a scared place it is the participation in the place that is more important. The last axiom the author mentions is that a scared place is both centripetal and centrifugal. The religious impulse periodically moves both toward and away from the center point where contact with the holy is made. The place focuses on a particular divine encounter. For example, Muhammad descending into heaven would be a sort of divine encounter. These examples of the Dome of the Rock and rules are for learning and understanding the character of a scared place. I hope that these rules help others as much as they have helped me in understanding scared places.