The Oxford Handbook of Religious Space

Bibliographic Data

ID23302113
EditorsJeanne Halgren Kilde (0000-0002-8180-5630, Religious Studies, University of Minnesota)
Year2022
Publication date2022-09-14
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueOxford Handbook of Religious Space (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190874988.001.0001
OpenAlexW4283584797
ISBN9780190874988
LanguageEN
Citations received5

How do we understand religious spaces? What is their role or function within specific religious traditions or with respect to religious experience? This handbook brings together thirty-seven authors who address these questions using a range of methods to analyze specific spaces or types of spaces around the world and across time. Their methods are grounded in many disciplines: religious studies and religion, anthropology, archaeology, architectural history and architecture, cultural and religious history, sociology, gender and women’s studies, geography, and political science, resulting in a distinctly interdisciplinary collection. These chapters are snapshots, each offering a specific way to think about the religious space(s) under consideration: Roman shrines, Jewish synagogues, Christian churches, Muslim and Catholic shrines, indigenous spaces in Central America and East Africa, cemeteries, memorials, and others. They are organized here by geographical region, rather than tradition, to emphasize the cultural roots of religion and religious spaces. Several overarching principles emerge from these snapshots. The authors demonstrate that religious spaces are simultaneously individual and collective, personal, and social; that they are influenced by culture, tradition, and immediate circumstances; and that they participate in various relationships of power. Most importantly, these essays demonstrate that religious spaces do not simply provide a convenient background for religious action but are also constituent of religious meaning and religious experience; that is, they play an active role in creating, expressing, broadcasting, maintaining, and transforming religious meaning and experience.

Epistemology · Indigenous · Meaning (existential) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Law · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces

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