Loci Sacri

Sacred places have long exercised a special fascination. Sacred places are not static entities but reveal a historical dynamic. They are the result of cultural developments and have varied multidimensional levels of significance. They are places where time is, as it were, suspended, and they are points where holy times and holy places meet. Sacred places are places apart.

It is this specificity in the context of the Christian religions of the West that Loci Sacri wishes to unveil by bringing together specialists from various disciplines, countries, and Christian denominations. One of the questions is why some sites have for centuries proven to be so popular while others have not. Another topic is the way in which extraordinary natural sites have been designated as sacred and given new meaning, primarily by means of architecture. Loci Sacri also explores the ‘eternal' character of this sacred status.

CONTENTS

Introduction
Rajesh Heynickx, Thomas Coomans, Herman De Dijn, Jan De Maeyer & Bart Verschaffel

Spirituality and Scholarship.
Sacred Acts and Sacred Spaces
David N. Bell

What makes a Monastery a Sacred Place?
Armand Veilleux

TYPES

Introduction
Bart Verschaffel

The Scandal of Particularity.
Meaning, Incarnation, and Sacred Places
Herman De Dijn

(Sacred) Places are Made of Time.
Observations on the Persistence of the Sacred in Categorizing Space in Modernity
Bart Verschaffel

The House of God?
The Conceptualization of Sacred Places in the Hebrew Bible and beyond
Pierre Van Hecke

SITES

Introduction
Rajesh Heynickx

The Need and the Search for Sacred Places.
A Sociological Perspective
Liliane Voyé

Capturing Nameless Energies, Experiencing Matrixial Paradoxes.
Syncretist Sacred Sites on the Canary Islands
Paul Vandenbroeck

No Places of Pilgrimage without Devotion(s)
Charles M.A. Caspers

Representing Sacred Space.
Pilgrimage and Literature
Jamie S. Scott

Purported Sacrality.
The Ambiguous Past and Ironic Present of a Sometimes Sacred Mesoamerican Archaeological-Tourist Site
Lindsay Jones

What makes a Site Sacred?
Transforming 'Place' to 'Sacred Space'
Terryl N. Kinder

REUSING

Introduction
Thomas Coomans

Dedication Rituals and Two Models for the Sacralization of Space
Maarten Delbeke

Reuse of Sacred Places.
Perspectives for a Long Tradition
Thomas Coomans

'Heritagization' of Church Buildings.
Quebec and North American Perspectives
Luc Noppen & Lucie K. Morisset

Bibliography
Colophon
Authors

Format: Edited volume - ebook

284 pages

ISBN: 9789461661050

Publication: January 09, 2012

Series: KADOC-Studies on Religion, Culture and Society 9

Languages: English

Bart Verschaffel is professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Universiteit Gent.
Herman De Dijn is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven.
Jan De Maeyer is professor emeritus of contemporary church history at KU Leuven and honorary director of KADOC-KU Leuven. His research focuses on political and social Catholicism, material Christianity, and the development of religious institutions and congregations.
Rajesh Heynickx is intellectual historian at KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture.
Thomas Coomans is an architectural historian, professor at the Department of Architecture of KU Leuven, and program director of the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation

Er is een grote variëteit aan 'definities': culturele sacraliteit, residual sanctity, plaats van herinnering, betekenisvolle plaats, vererfgoedisering, toeristische attractie als voorheen een heilige plaats, plaats van persoonlijke devotie. Daar staat tegenover dat de bundel als geheel een rijkdom aan aanknopingspunten bevat om de thernatiek nader uit te werken. De buitengewoon uitvoerige bibliografie draagt daar zeker aan bij.
Trajecta. Religie, cultuur en samenleving in de Nederlanden, Jrg. 21,2012, aflevering 3-4, Lodewijk Winkeler (Nijmegen)