Landscapes of the Sacred - axioms

Kendall Bredehorst
12/16/17


The first chapter of Landscapes of the Sacred is surrounded around the theme of axioms of a sacred place. A sacred place is defined as a 'storied place'. The four axioms discussed are 1) a sacred place is not chosen, it chooses 2) a sacred place is an ordinary place, ritually made extraordinary 3) a sacred place can be tied upon without being entered, and 4) the impulse of sacred place is both centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal.

The second axiom caught my attention because I think a lot of times people forget that these sacred places, didn't always have so much meaning. The Church of Nativity, for example, didn't always have a sacred value. It was a church that was made extraordinary because the birth of Jesus took place in it.



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