Rel 207 sacred space and sacred time
- 1. Ritual Symbol Myth Sacred Space Sacred time
- 2. Sacred Space and Time — If we understand Ultimate Reality and Sacred Power as the organizing principles of a religious world, then creating Sacred Space and Sacred Time are the modes of access to that reality for religious people. — Time and Space are ordinary (profane) until they are made special (sacred) by those who want or need to enter them. — Rituals help religious people construct sacred space/time and are the scripted behaviors that they perform within it. Myths are the stories that explain why these times and spaces are important to create and inhabit for a particular religious group. — The most important function of sacred time and space is its ability to orient religious communities; to give them a meaningful space in which to dwell. Religion sets boundaries and orders human life; sacred space and time are among the most powerful ordering mechanisms that religion offers to human beings.
- 3. Types of Sacred Time — “Timeless Time” or eternity, which is the abode of the gods, spirits and other immaterial, immortal beings or the immeasurable nonmaterial realm of sacred power. The important feature is that this time is paradoxically not measurable. Creation stories or myths sometimes explain how time that we experience as humans (linear, progressive and irreversible) began. See, Genesis 1 for example. — Holy days on the religious calendar—commemorations—that mark divine or supernatural events: Easter (resurrection); Passover (liberation from Egypt); Christmas (birth of a human-divine savior); Shavuot (Torah given to Moses on Sinai); Eid al-Adha (near ‘sacrifice’ of Ishmael); Ramadan (revelation of the Koran to Muhammad). The sacred time humans recreate on a cyclical basis is an attempt to overcome the linear progression of ordinary, profane time and to experience the ‘timeless time’ of the Sacred.
- 4. Sacred Time • Sacred time represents or commemorates the intrusion of sacred power into the ordinary world • Qualitatively different from ordinary or profane time • Certain extraordinary actions may be required, or normal actions forbidden in sacred time • Religious people often recreate sacred time on a regular, cyclical basis: holy days, calendars, rituals and rites, pilgrimages e.g.
- 5. Two Forms of Sacred Time — Primary: The sacred intrudes into the human realm — Some myths, like creation stories, describe these primary experiences of sacred time. — Miracles and stories about miracles record episodes of “sacred time” — Religious practitioners claim to have primary experiences of sacred time through meditation, trance states, or other techniques that suspend normal states of consciousness. — Near death experiences can also be examples of entering ‘sacred’ time’, although they are not necessarily tied to pre-existing religious belief. — Religious people create sacred periods in time to commemorate a supernatural event — Holy days or times are usually marked by a beginning ritual and an ending ritual — Sacred times are usually connected to sacred spaces. These can be as small as a Muslim prayer rug or a Jewish tallit or as grand as the Ka’aba or the St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
- 6. Sacred Space • Marks or commemorates a place where Sacred Power or Ultimate Reality intruded into the profane, or where religious people may come into contact with this power or presence. • Sacred space is marked by the same ambivalence that characterizes sacred power. Access is usually regulated to mitigate the danger of inappropriate contact. There is almost always a protocol to follow; special actions or dress may be required; sometimes only certain individuals are authorized to enter or perform sacred actions in these spaces. Screen shot of a virtual Buddhist shrine available as an iPhone app. Sacred space is sometimes portable; now it can even be virtual. Virtual sacred spaces eliminate the restrictions that traditionally accompany entering sacred space, leaving the individual responsible for creating his/her own encounter with the sacred.
- 7. Moses at the Burning Bush — Myths can contain stories of divine-human encounters, like the Biblical story of Moses and the burning bush. — Here, the sacred eruption into profane space is revealed to Moses as an alteration of the natural order. A bush burns but is not consumed. A voice calls out but no body is present. — When profane space has been touched by the Sacred it becomes sacred too; humans must treat the space differently. — Here Moses must remove his shoes in the presence of the sacred. The ground has become too sacred for ordinary shoes. — Although the divine voice speaks to Moses personally, Moses hides his face – fear and fascination are often the mixed human response to an encounter with the Sacred in religious myth. — Neither Jews nor Christians memorialize this ancient encounter in ritual, but it is frequently depicted in Christian art. Mosaics, stained glass, statuary, icons, paintings, and frescoes are common media for depicting sacred beings and events in non-iconoclastic religions Byzantine mosaic of Moses at the burning bush, commemorating Moses’ divine call to redeem Israel from slavery: “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover He said, ‘I am the God of your father …’” (Ex. 3:5-6)
- 8. Creating sacred space — Sacred sites anchored in natural phenomena were once considered the center of the world. These sites provided an axis mundi, or point of connection between the physical, visible world and the invisible, spiritual world of the gods or ancestors. Indigenous cultures, like Native American communities in the U.S., for example, have struggled against the forces of assimilation and the demands of secular society to be able to maintain their sacred connection to the land. The San Francisco Peaks in Arizona are a good example of this phenomenon, both from the religious and the secular perspectives. — For most Western societies in modern times particular geographic sites or natural features of the landscape are less likely to be sacred or to serve as physical centers of a religious world. This is mostly because contemporary populations have migrated, or been uprooted and transplanted by means of wars, exile, colonization, and slavery. The roots that once connected people to a specific piece of geography have either been lost or, where retained, have necessarily been made portable. Modern religious communities often build sacred spaces in the absence of any naturally orienting features of the physical landscape. Instead of sacred mountains or trees, we have cathedrals and temples, shrines, and mosques. — When original sacred geography is unavailable, members of religious communities may travel on sacred journeys called pilgrimages to visit those distant, sacred sites.
- 9. Types of sacred space — Natural — Especially trees, mountains, waterfalls, rivers, and any unusual or odd features or events of nature. Awe-inspiring natural phenomena are seen as evidence of divine or sacred presence. These features will usually be designated as sacred either by taboo (regulating access) or by physically marking the site off from the surrounding landscape. Buildings may be erected alongside the site and rituals may be performed in or on the site. — Buildings — Shrines, temples (stationary fixtures that house sacred objects or mark sacred sites. In the U.S. temples can also function as congregational meeting places) — churches, synagogues, mosques, etc. Not sacred spaces in the technical sense of the word although they may contain holy objects and designated sacred spaces within (Catholic altar, Jewish ark for the Torah). These buildings are used for congregational gatherings, which include occasions for marking sacred time. — Objects — Prayer rugs, tallits and Torah scrolls, household altars or shrines, roadside memorials … (these are used to create small, often personal and portable sacred spaces for prayer, sacrifice, or other forms of contact with the Sacred).
- 10. Art and Music — Art and idolatry are interconnected concepts in religion. Iconoclasts (Muslims, Jews and some Protestant Christians) consider images and statues to be idolatrous and forbidden according to their religious laws. — In most religious traditions, imagery is rich and crucial to the religious experience. Icons in the Orthodox Christian tradition serve as focal points for encountering God; Hindu images of the gods serve as temporary (or sometimes permanent) ‘residences’ for sacred power. — Music is a ubiquitous feature of religious worship. This can be in the form of ritualized chanting, congregational hymn- singing, or a more formalized “performance/audience” experience. Music frames ritual activity, which in turn signals the beginning and end of sacred time.
- 11. Image Sources — Year of Grace Liturgical calendar: http://www.mccrimmons.com/product/207/1992 — Virtual Buddhist Shrine: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ishrine-virtual- buddhist-shrine/id328373556?mt=8