To Cut off, Purify, and Make Whole: Historiographical and Ecclesiastical Conceptions of Ritual Space

Abstract

Notions of ritual space, and patterns of behavior within such spaces, seem to be intrinsic to individual aspiration and collective resolution as sectarian groups organize means of rationalizing life and death. The purity attributed to ritual spaces by Zoroastrians or Mazdeans can be probed in the context of theological, mythological, and linguistic links to space, place, and time in chronological contexts. Despite specific divergences between various religions, ritual spaces and the rites conducted therein seem to condition devotees to understand and accept events in particular manners that benefit both the individuals and the communities. As the Zoroastrian case demonstrates, a separation of pure, holy, and sacred-and of their counterparts impure, unholy, and profane-rather than the more traditional conflation of those concepts, may be necessary because purity and holiness seem to be linked in religious settings to order rather than to reverence and fear. Thus, an alternative interpretation of ritual space, and of devotional processes that occur within such spaces, over time, and in terms of notions relating to purity and holiness rather than sacredness and its interwoven aspect of mysterium tremendum may prove useful in better understanding religion within a historiographical framework.