{"id":34,"date":"2021-01-27T17:16:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T17:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understandingreligion\/chapter\/chapter-1\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T18:29:44","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T18:29:44","slug":"chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understandingreligion\/chapter\/chapter-1\/","title":{"rendered":"1.1 Sacred Spaces"},"content":{"raw":" \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"Baha'i<\/a>\r\n
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\r\n\u201cYour sacred space is where you find yourself again and again\u201d (Joseph Campbell)<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\n\r\nWe all live in a specific place on the planet, and where we live impacts, in visible and not so visible ways, the ways that we interact with the world, with other people, and with our internal self.\u00a0 The child raised in prairie or tundra spaces may find the deep forest intimidating or enclosing.\u00a0 The child from the seaside may long for water in ways that the desert dweller may not completely understand.\r\n\r\nSo the concept of Sacred Space will change from people to people, during history, dependent on location, belief and lifestyle.\u00a0 This unit will attempt to help us think about the concepts that make a space Sacred.\r\n\r\n \r\n
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Let's start with a definition:<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, one of the definitions of the word sacred is:<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u201cb. Dedicated, set apart, exclusively appropriated to some person or some special purpose.\u201d<\/strong><\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\nDuring the summer of 2010, PBS went on a quest to find sacred spaces in eight cities across America. The results of that journey is a curated selection which appears in their City Guides to Sacred Spaces in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Portland, Santa Fe and San Francisco (downloadable at pbs.org\/godinamerica\/outreach). During this the staff thought long and hard about what it is that makes a space sacred.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Their definition of a sacred space includes the following:<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n<\/b>\"St<\/a><\/strong>\r\n

\u00a0 Traditional Sacred Space<\/strong> - A house of worship designed and built for a congregation to\r\ngather, meet and enjoy community for the purposes of worship, liturgy and\/or ritual<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"Martin<\/a><\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nCivic Sites<\/strong> \u2013 engineered structures, secular in nature and scope \u2013 usually built by cities, state or government entities\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n

\"Lake<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Landscape Sites<\/strong> \u2013 sequestered spaces with natural features including water, trees, parkland which encourage quiet meditation and pause<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"Arlington<\/a><\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nMemorial Sites<\/strong> \u2013 markers of an event or person, burial grounds, cemeteries, sites of conscience and memory\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n

Spiritual Place<\/strong>s that have been imprinted over time, or have been historically seen as \u201csacred\u201d a priori \u2013 set aside for the public good<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n

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EXERCISE<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\nTake some time to consider what you might have in the way of Sacred Spaces in your community.\u00a0 There are likely Traditional Sacred Spaces of some sort.\u00a0 What else can you think of that exists in your community that is a Sacred Space of some sort?\r\n