Douglas Pelenberg: Landscapes of the Sacred

Lane’s first axiom is that Sacred Place is not chosen, it chooses. Lane’s second axiom is that sacred place is very often ordinary place, ritually set apart to become extraordinary. Lane’s third axiom is that simply moving into allegedly sacred place does not necessarily make one present in it. Lane’s fourth and final axiom is that sacred space always possesses a double impulse, a tendency alternately toward localization and universalization. I agree with all of these axioms because they can apply to each place I personally hold sacred, and all the places we studied in this class.