Religious Spaces, By Thomas Tweed

Many people consider themselves spiritual, but they would not consider themselves religious. People seek deep meaning in everyday life, but they are not church goers. Barbara Brown Taylor seeks to speak into this divide in An Altar in the World by revealing meaningful practices to discover the sacred in everyday life. Taylor outlines twelve practices addressing vision, reverence, incarnation, groundedness, wilderness, community, vocation, Sabbath, physical labor, breakthrough, prayer, benediction and how through these simple practices we can engage God in different and new ways.

In this paper, I will review Charles Ryrie’s book The Holy Spirit. I will detail what I feel the book is about. I will emphasize various points given by the author that stood out to me. Finally, I will give my personal evaluation of the book.

In Tweed’s definition of religious space, he argued that religious spaces were “differentiated” if it’s “imaginatively figured and/or sensually encountered locales that are deemed more or less ‘special,’ ‘singular,’ or ‘set apart’.” (Tweed 2011: 119) He further clarified the standard of spaces being “special” and “religious” as the extent they can appeal to “human and suprahuman forces to make homes and cross boundaries.” (Tweed 2006: 54) In addition, Tweed argued that “differentiated” spaces of religious are not static things, but “kinetic” processes. With the cultural and natural development, spaces would also change. Furthermore, Tweed claimed that spaces are also interrelated. According to Tweed, religious spaces are interrelated “with domestic spaces and childhood memories,” (Tweed, Space: 121) as well as the “converging cultural ‘streams’ – political, social, and economic.” (Tweed, Space: 121) In the Hebrew Bible, Jerusalem, the …… fit this characterization perfectly.

The book I read for my Political Science class was In God's Underground, by Richard Wurmbrand.

As days went by in the concentration camp, many begin to lose their faith in religion just like Elie. The book, Night is written by Elie Wiesel, a winner of the Nobel Peace prize. In the book Night, Elie is the main character who is very religious at first. It begins with his family and him traveling to Auschwitz which his little sister and mother die. With only his father and him, they went through many hardships and moving from camp to camp. Unfortunately, Elie father did not survive the Holocaust but Elie did. By the end of the story, Elie did entirely lose his faith in God because he did not celebrate the important holidays, questioned God and his justice, and tries to forget his existence.

"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is" (Web). This quote by Albert Camus describes the journey Elie Wiesel goes through in the story. Elie fights back and forth from thinking that God exists or that he doesn't exist. Night is a memoir about Elie's life during the Holocaust. Elie is captured in 1944 by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp because he is a Jew and throughout his journey, his religious beliefs are shaken.

Tweed uses the term differentiated to define a religious space. Differentiated means, “imaginatively figured and/or sensually encountered locales that are deemed more or less ‘special,’ ‘singular,’ or ‘set apart” (119). In other words, when communities single out a specific area and give it significance, they are creating a sacred space. Tweed explains it is crucial to understand that labeling a religious space as ‘special’, “acknowledges religion’s interaction with biological and cultural factors affecting human life” (119). Tweed than goes on to clarify what he means by “special” and “religious”. He uses Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel to exemplify the “special” aspect of the religious space. Tweed explains the Virgin’s presence gives the environment a sense of perfection and exceptionalism. To be considered a ‘religious’ space, the area must make humans appeal, “to suprahuman forces (like the Virgin of Guadalupe) and imagine an ultimate horizon

Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica 2. Jerusalem was a place that Jesus spent a lot of his

Raymond of Aguilers on the fall of Jerusalem, is a first-hand account on the siege of Jerusalem which reveals an insight into the war-tactics of the Christians, the overall violence of the event that took place, and the religious fanaticism of the Crusaders. While the text supplies many details on these features, from the perspective of Raymond of Aguilers, a chaplain who participated in the event,1 this paper will argue that the text overall is inaccurate as a historical account, and rather simply an exaggerated interpretation of what occurred. Based on the notion of the Crusader’s superiority as Christians, and the belief that their actions were sanctioned by God2 this paper will attempt to prove that the description is un-objective and biased.

The meaning of religion is something that scholars, along with society at large, have attempted to define for centuries. Although the term cannot truly have one solid meaning, it is clear that religion is much more than a set of beliefs and practices. In Religion: The Basics, author Mallory Nye discusses his approach to studying religion. In arguing that culture and religion strongly influence each other, he explains that those studying religion must make people and culture their focus, as variations even within the same religions exist and must be considered. Moreover, Nye explains how religion is, essentially, a universal concept, as it takes form in an array of shapes across the globe. With Nye’s argument, I have developed new insights

Conceived in eras of uncertainty and strife, many people weave through the contradictions and inner struggles within communities, while also indulging themselves in the broad concept of redefining themselves just to feel accepted by the society around them. In “Homo religiosus” Karen Armstrong brings out the materialized definition of an “individual” through concepts such as religion, activities like yoga, the artistic features of caves, and most importantly the image of Brahma. The detailed notions placed on each concept yields the reassuring meaning that religion symbolically is a safe harbor, in which individuals can feel comforted and relieved. However the question that always comes up is if an individual is willing to exclude themselves from the harsh realities of society. As the essay progresses, Armstrong 's usage of words such as kenosis—emptying—, junzi—maturity—, and anatta—dethrone—broadens the idea on how an individual’s illusion of an identity can be renewed and reached (14,17). However with the brutish imagery that is brought up throughout the essay a sense of isolation and hopelessness, making for a mood of muted panic and dread questions the truth behind the meaning of a “being”. Yet in the end the idea that there is a world outside the circles of human existence, gets the individual going as they search for something worth living for.

Jerusalem is considered to be among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. It is the birthplace of three major monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which is why this city has an extensive history of being at the center of religious conflicts. Jerusalem became regarded as a holy city when people used it as a place to symbolize God and His presence as well as where He revealed his miraculous works. Mircea Eliade, a historian of religion, demonstrates his theory on how hierophanies establishes the basis of religion and how people see sacredness as something that is valuable to human life because it represents reality, which then transcribes to existence.

Eliade, in his book “The Sacred and Profane,” poses an interesting conjecture that all people are inherently religious. What one does and the decision they make in their lives are all reflections on what they find sacred. Sacred in this context is an extension of one’s belief held up in high esteem to the point where what is deemed sacred is god like. Religion is the frame that interprets what is sacred and gives it a name and a face. Christians, for example, view Christmas as a sacred time as it is the season of the birth of their savior; Jews view the Passover as sacred as it represents a time in their religious history where God passed over the Jews while sending a message to their enemies. What is sacred can manifest itself in any shape, form, or time; truly entering the fourth dimension of space. If something sacred is god like, what is sacred to those who do not have a God? How can something be sacred if there is not a frame of reference for the thing to be sacred? How can every decision a person makes be reflect what they find sacred, if they do not have a religious language to reflect this phenomena?

The second event, concurrent actions on all fronts Nehemiah speaks of a new vision for the city of Jerusalem, where the people could create the foundation for change if they commit to achieving the results. Nehemiah organizes work crews, sustains opposition from those who oppose the rebuilding, and reforms the court system. Furthermore, Nehemiah purifies the religious practices and aligns the religious teachings with God’s scriptures. Using concurrent actions as Nehemiah demonstrates, builds momentum, and shows the commitment of the people participating in the rebuilding process.

The crux of Emile Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life lies in the concept of collective effervescence, or the feelings of mutually shared emotions. Through a hermeneutical approach, Durkheim investigates the reflexiveness of social organization, the balance between form and content, and the immense cooperation in collective representations. In his work, society is the framework of humanity and gives it meaning, whereas religion acts as the tool to explain it. Since society existed prior to the individual, the collective mind must be understood before the concept of the individual can be grasped. However, one component seems missing from his social theory – what underlies society in terms of rituals and rites? Only when this