- the book
Religion, Culture, and Sacred Space is an exploration of how places become not just spots on the map, but deeply meaningful. The map to the right contains markers for the places covered in the book. The map markers contain photos I took during my travels, along with brief notes on how specific stories have taken hold in each place.
The basic thesis of Religion, Culture, and Sacred Space is that spots on our earth become invested with meaning as human beings weave imporant narratives around them. Narrative is a central part of cognitive development and social identity is expressed through shared stories. Places get assigned value and meaning as they are taken up and used as settings for the narratives that underlie identities.
Human beings form deeply emotional attachments to places, traveling long distances to visit the sites where an event occurred or where someone is buried. These emotional attachments feel so deep that we are often tempted to believe there is something inherently sacred about a certain plot of land. This book argues that place is a human creation and a work undertaken by every culture to give meaning to the space surrounding it.
