I’m working right now on a piece entitled Liminal Locus: On Threshold Places, (liminal = liminus = threshold; local = locus = place) that addresses the reality that while all space can become a threshold of encounter with God, there is a reality evident in all spiritual history that places carry history, significance and even theological importance.
For now, I believe in spaces that are “set apart” for certain activities, one of which is the intentional expression of worship through symbolic action, shared encounter and community engagement. However, I do not believe in the concept that all “sacred spaces” and “non-sacred spaces” should be utterly disconnected.
Platonic dualism in Western civilization (and theology) has corrupted our ability to see all of life, and human activity, as a forum for sacred activity. I.e. The ground underneath our feet is holy as we walk with God – but some ground is designated specifically for encounter with God (i.e. Jesus and the Temple – “My house shall be called a house of prayer….”).
Just seeding the thought, for input as I move ahead with the idea.
12 Comments
Dan,
Last week I was part of a Covention for Churches in ohio – as we were planning it we where aware that some of the worship services where to be held in a college gym and some were in beautiful 100 year old church, with stain glass ect. I remember one of the planners saying “it doesn’t matter were we are in a gym or church building we can worship”. While that may be true in some degree our expreince in both spaces was very different.
One of my qustions would be – as we find these threshold spaces are they “theshold” spaces because of our mind set when we go there or because there phsyical set-up. ie. What makes walking in the woods a Threshold space – is it that it is Nature God’s creation, quiet or is it our one sense of shedding other stuff as we head to the woods?
Hi Dan, good thoughts. However, I would caution against attributing too much to “platonic dualism” whether this be in theology or Western civilization. It seems that the break between the sacred and non-sacred is rather due to a complex set of historical processes that could be attributed to any number of things, such as the rise of secularism, modern science, capitalism, etc.
Mindset and environment, I believe, Chad. Humans are drawn to particular spaces for particular things – i.e. it’s not just what happens in our minds that changes things. We are influenced by the exterior, as the exterior is by the interior.
Roger, thanks for the caution. While I do agree that fragmenting philosophies have many incarnations, I attribute most theological fragmentations and distortions of biblical interpretation in these matters to the heavy influence of Platonism on early church fathers (Augustine) and even churches.
Why? Because the roots that we see evidenced in Western culture stem from Graeco-Roman, Platonic roots.
The same issues are not the same in non-Western, non Graeco-Roman influenced cultures.
Dan, actually this is Ry!
To Chad’s question and after reflection, I put it down to joy; that’s it, joy.
If there was joy in building a cathedral, there joy will be…until a worshipping community with no joy sets up shop and then, the ’sacred’ is chased off if not muted.
Similarly, Kate and I went to the monthly gathering of L’Arche in Saint John and it was held in a gym, but the space was more holy than many prettier places I’ve been. And why? because of the hokey pokey. In the midst of other more traditional worship songs, one of the core members shouted out for this song and we did it, danced like it was my 8th birthday and I want it (the hokey pokey in the heart) in every time of worship.
i wonder if we often look for a permanent sacred space because we lack the hokey pokey in our communal heart.
Good words, Joel. I agree, on many levels.
Ry, sorry for confusing you with the Rog. And, after further thought, I take back my disagreement. The rise of “secular space” is indeed a Modern idea.
It is to the roots I go, believing that separating the high and holy from the low and earthy is the feeder root running back through Western civilization.
In my estimation, the fragmentation (including the beauty of scientific analysis and necessary categorizing) has roots in this tendency to break ideas down into component parts – these are the foundations of mathematics, science and philosophy.
In the breaking down, I believe there have been tendency’s to compartmentalize the human person, the ideas we perpetrate, and the world in which we live that has far deeper roots in history than the modern age.
And yet, it is complex. I would now say I largely agree with you, though I personally believe Augustine and his heirs had far more significant an impact on theology than they every should have had.
Some interesting ideas from the world of Wiki sent this way:
“Liminality in places”
These can range from borders, to no man’s lands and disputed territories, to crossroads to perhaps airports or hotels, which people pass through but do not live in.
In mythology and religion or esoteric lore this can include such realms as Purgatory or Da’at which as well as signifying liminality some theologians have denied actually existing, making them, in some cases, doubly liminal.
“Between-ness” defines these spaces. For a hotel worker (an insider) or a person passing by with disinterest (a total outsider), the hotel would have a very different connotation. To a traveller staying there, the hotel would function as a liminal zone.
Examples in fiction include the Interzone, the Wood between the Worlds and, as mentioned, The Twilight Zone. In the series itself, fittingly, the Twilight Zone does not appear as an actual literal location, making it both a place and not a place at the same time, and therefore also doubly liminal.
Doors, windows, springs, caves, shores, rivers, volcanic calderas, fords, passes, crossroads, bridges, and marshes are all liminal. Oedipus (an adoptee and therefore liminal) met his father at the crossroads and killed him; the bluesman Robert Johnson met the devil at the crossroads, where he is said to have sold his soul.
Major transformations occur at crossroads and other liminal places, at least partly because liminality — being so unstable — can pave the way for access to esoteric knowledge or understanding of both sides. Liminality is sacred, alluring, and dangerous.”
Wow, all this talk of liminal locus has my mind racing and my heart longing to find a place where I can walk with my Lord. I’ve been in my office studying and posting video’s on my blog and realize its time for me to head to the woods and do some mountain biking. With that said I think we all may have some personal ideas about sacred spaces. My Grandmother finds it hard to worship in an Elementary School library when she has grown accustomed to worshiping in a sanctuary built in the 1920’s. I tend to find myself drawn to worshiping outdoors. I do believe we have fallen away from (due to Platonic ideas infultrating our theology or capitalism or any other ism for that matter) from designing spaces for the purpose of worship, prayer, and communion with God and his Church. We tend to build so that we can experience the product now, rather than having a Kingdom approach to our creating where we may not see a finished product but generations to come will have the opportunity to be blessed by a prior generations artistry.
With that said I’m hitting the woods. (created for multigenerational use)
Good thoughts, Dylan. Glad you’re finding “place.” Hit the woods, and hit ‘em hard.
Creation is a liminal locus not made by human hands. What a gift to us, beauty can be.
Joel, in our Spiritual Formation class this morning we focused on the Practice Of The Presence of God from Brother Lawrence, who greatly focuses on the heart as liminal locus, or threshold place.
It stressed again the balance you suggested in your post – that the heart is a place where encounter occurs, and it can win the day over a difficult physical place, be it a jail, a cave, a gym or a closet.
We then begin to draw on the themes above in the Wiki post, and recognize that “between-ness” evidences itself in circumstances that move us. For example, a student who has completed her last exam, yet has not yet had the graduation ceremony, is in a liminal, transitional place. An engaged couple who is waiting for the wedding, and shared life together, is experiencing liminality.
Songs and other art forms, as well, are a liminal locus. In our work, songs of worship themselves are non-locational places to which we go, and with which we experience encounter – with God, ourselves, others and even our living and inanimate environs. I’ve been taken to a threshold many times by a painting or paintings – Carvaggio’s exhibition in Amsterdam a few years ago.
Threshold spaces are many. It would be good to hear more from others.
I like the idea of the heart as liminal locus as long as it doesn’t stay there, trapped by a privatized faith culture. I’m thinking of Gary Succoup (spelling? sorry gary) and his Fred Eaglesmith songs. Singing those songs and drinking beer with him is like singing with the angels (as far as I know what that might be like!) because he lets God into who he is.
What I’m also wondering is…
What thresholds was Jesus brought to? or rather, “which thresholds did Jesus try to bring others to?”
I am thinking of the weeping over Jerusalem in this question.
Great contribution, Joel.
1. I’m not sure of the point of the songs and beer story. Shared faith?
2. Jerusalem: i.e. the threshold of grief/longing.
The point I was trying to make (oh clarity) is that the in-between-ness you mentioned is the space between people, even the unsaid bits. My experience with gary was an example of his heart coming to bear on his social existence; that night his social existence included me, kate, and helen. So the main point is, these wonderful God things begin in the heart and they prove themselves so by working their way outward, like all growth.
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