Testing Seventeen Centuries of Claims

An Ecologically Valid Multi-Method Empirical Study of Basilica-Plan Sacred Architecture

Bibliographic Data

ID24217992
AuthorsJulio Bermúdez (0000-0003-0142-7359, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064, USA), Yoshio Nakamura (0000-0001-8001-7600, University of Utah), Amir Ebadi (Delustration Design, Washington, DC 20001, USA), Juliana Keagle (HCM (Hord Coplan Macht), Alexandria, VA 22314, USA), Ann Sussman (0000-0002-5987-4234, The Human Architecture & Planning Institute, Inc., Concord, MA 01742, USA), Tom Beaudoin (0009-0005-3250-999X, Fordham University)
Year2026
Volume17
Issue10
Pages1140
Publication date2026-09-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel17101140
OpenAlexW7214748366
LanguageEN
References cited57

For seventeen centuries, basilica-plan churches have remained among Christianity’s most enduring architectural forms. Scholars have long argued that features such as bell towers, axial orientation toward the altar, upward light, noble materials, verticality, monumental scale, beauty, and figurative iconography communicate sacred meaning and shape religious experience, though these claims have remained largely grounded in historical, architectural, and theological discourse. This exploratory study recruited thirty-two committed Catholic participants to visit the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and Union Station, a secular control, both in Washington, DC. Using mobile eye-tracking, biometric sensing, phenomenological and perceptual reporting, and a post-visit questionnaire, the study investigated, under fully ecological conditions, which features of the basilica type shape attention, experience, and religious understanding. The findings make four contributions: (1) empirical support for longstanding claims about the basilica type, showing that its features operate as an integrated affordance-rich environment, orienting experience toward what participants identify as God; (2) demonstration that rigorous ecological investigation of sacred architectural experience is achievable without sacrificing empirical validity; (3) documentation of a three-level dissociation between aesthetic and sacred experience—pre-attentive equivalence across both buildings, semi-conscious divergence driven by figurative content, material richness, verticality, and a proposed “prelude schema,” and consciously reported differences in spirituality, connectedness, and experiential profile; and (4) a methodological framework for advancing Experimental Theological Aesthetics across architecture, liturgy, ritual, sacred art, and natural environments.

Aesthetic experience · affordances · building materials · connectedness · Ecological psychology · Eye tracking · religious architecture · Sacred space · Spirituality · Union Station · verticality · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Study and Philosophy of Religion

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