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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-three
essays addressing these questions using a range of methods and
approaches to examine specific spaces or types of spaces around the
world and across time. The authors here represent and draw upon
many disciplines: religious studies and religion, anthropology,
archaeology, architectural history and architecture, cultural and
religious history, sociology, geography, gender and women's studies
and others. Their essays 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 more. Some 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. 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; they play an active role in creating,
expressing, broadcasting, maintaining, and transforming religious
meanings and religious experiences. By learning how religious
spaces function, readers of this collection will gain a deeper
understanding of religious life and religions themselves.
Jeanne Halgren Kilde's survey of church architecture is unlike any
other. Her main concern is not the buildings themselves, but rather
the dynamic character of Christianity and how church buildings
shape and influence the religion. Kilde argues that a primary
function of church buildings is to represent and reify three
different types of power: divine power, or ideas about God;
personal empowerment as manifested in the individual's perceived
relationship to the divine; and social power, meaning the
relationships between groups such as clergy and laity. Each type
intersects with notions of Christian creed, cult, and code, and is
represented spatially and materially in church buildings.
Kilde explores these categories chronologically, from the early
church to the twentieth century. She considers the form,
organization, and use of worship rooms; the location of churches;
and the interaction between churches and the wider culture.
Church buildings have been integral to Christianity, and Kilde's
important study sheds new light on the way they impact all aspects
of the religion. Neither mere witnesses to transformations of
religious thought nor simple backgrounds for religious practice,
church buildings are, in Kilde's view, dynamic participants in
religious change and goldmines of information on Christianity
itself.
In late 19th century America, profound socio-economic and technological changes contributed to the rejection of traditional church architecture and the development of a radically new worship building, the neo-medieval auditorium church. These Protestant churches contained extraordinary new auxiliary spaces, including kitchens, dining rooms, and lounges. Their real showpieces, however, were always the sanctuaries, radial-plan auditoria best described as 'theatres', with their elaborate pulpit stages, sloping floors, and curving pews. Many contained proscenium arches, marquee lighting, and theatre seats. Jeanne Halgren Kilde focuses on how the buildings helped to negotiate supernatural, social, and personal power. Their extraordinary interiors, she says, profoundly altered religious power relations. Borrowed directly from the architecture of the theatre, these worship spaces underscored performative and entertainment aspects of the worship service. By erecting these buildings, argues Kilde, middle class religious audiences demonstrated the move toward a consumer-oriented model of a religious participation that gave them unprecedented influence over the worship experience and church mission.
For nearly eighteen centuries, two fundamental spatial plans
dominated Christian architecture: the basilica and the central
plan. In the 1880s, however, profound socio-economic and
technological changes in the United States contributed to the
rejection of these traditions and the development of a radically
new worship building, the auditorium church. When Church Became
Theatre focuses on this radical shift in evangelical Protestant
architecture and links it to changes in worship style and religious
mission.
The auditorium style, featuring a prominent stage from which rows
of pews radiated up a sloping floor, was derived directly from the
theatre, an unusual source for religious architecture but one with
a similar goal-to gather large groups within range of a speaker's
voice. Theatrical elements were prominent; many featured proscenium
arches, marquee lighting, theatre seats, and even opera boxes.
Examining these churches and the discussions surrounding their
development, Jeanne Halgren Kilde focuses on how these buildings
helped congregations negotiate supernatural, social, and personal
power. These worship spaces underscored performative and
entertainment aspects of the service and in so doing transformed
relationships between clergy and audiences. In auditorium churches,
the congregants' personal and social power derived as much from
consumerism as from piety, and clerical power lay in dramatic
expertise rather than connections to social institutions. By
erecting these buildings, argues Kilde, middle class religious
audiences demonstrated the move toward a consumer-oriented model of
religious participation that gave them unprecedented influence over
the worship experience andchurch mission.
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