Secular Space Research Articles

God-Talk: an Introduction

Abstract God-talk consists of God speaking to humans in revelation, and humans speaking to God in prayer. They are the two forms of the covenantal language spoken between God and humans in general, and specifically between God and the Jewish people. God-talk is an essential component of the languages of all historic cultures. Yet there have been attempts to dismiss God-talk from public discourse, either epistemologically by claiming it is nonsense, or psychologically by claiming it is an invented illusion. Conversely, it is argued here that Jewish God-talk (by no means uniquely) has a logic that regulates how it may and may not be intelligently spoken by its speakers; hence it is not nonsense. And it is argued here that God-talk has always been spoken in human history, that it would be unintelligible in any language whose speakers did not already intend a real referent by the name “God”; hence it is not an invented illusion. This essay is an attempt to retrieve God-talk so that it can be conducted in public discourse, even in secular space.

Стильно, модно, православно: опыт исследования кофейни «ANTIПА»

The article describes the experience of field research conducted during 2023–2024 on the territory of the church of the Holy Martyr Antipas of Pergamon in Kolymazhny Dvor (Moscow), where the “ANTIPA” coffee shop is located. The research addresses the issues of creation, organization, functioning and structure of the public space initiated and supervised by a religious community, as well as social agents who interact with it. The coffee shop “ANTIPA” is proposed to be examined through the lens of five aspects: 1) spatial, 2) social, 3) aesthetic, 4) organizational, 5) economic and labor. The church complex’s adjacent territory can be characterized as a secular space with religious elements, which performs the following functions: 1) a meeting place (as a point on the map where people can meet), 2) a place of communication (as a place where one can spend time socializing), 3) a mediator between the city and religion (as a place that allows residents and visitors of the capital to encounter the religious).

하서 김인후의 누정원림 문학공간 연구

This paper examined how Kim In-hoo's spatial perception was embodied in Nujeong Garden Forest through an analysis of Nujeong Garden Forests created in Gwangju, Damyang, and Jangseong in Gwangju and Jeonnam. Kim In-hoo often visited Gwangju and Damyang Nujeong Garden Forest, the center of Honam City, after returning to his hometown and living in Jangseong.
 It can be seen that the Pungyeongjeong Pavilion in the Gwangju area became a space for Kim In-hoo to enjoy natural customs and express pure emotions. In addition, it could be considered that Hwanbyeokdang became a space for Kim In-hoo to cultivate his mind and body and self-sacrifice. Kim In-hoo reflected on his inner self in Pungyeongjeong and Hwanbyeokdang, while expressing the excitement felt there while enjoying beautiful nature in a poem.
 Next, Kim In-hoo focused on embodying the appearance of scholars who wanted to become a reclusive self-developed by relaxing in Soswawon or Nujeongwonrim in Myeonangjeong in Damyang area. Kim In-hoo was able to consider Kim In-hoo's spatial perception, which embodies the joy of living in Soswawon and Myeonangjeong, not just as a natural space, but as a secular space separated from the world.
 Finally, Kim In-hoo's sublimation from a space called Nujeong Garden Forest in Jangseong to a space that embodies filial piety for parents beyond the traditional style of enjoying the beautiful mountains of his hometown is a characteristic of Kim In-hoo's Nujeong Garden Forest literature. Jangseong area, his hometown, was a place of living where he had to return with his exhausted body from his public office and finally commission and live.

Landed and Rooted: A Comparative Study of Traditional Hakka Dwellings (Tulous and Weilong Houses) Based on the Methodology of Space Syntax

Both Tulous (土楼) and Weilong Houses (围龙屋) are important types of traditional Hakka (客家) dwellings whose architectural morphology is closely related to the historical origin, social organisation, and cultural values of Hakkas. Previous studies focused on the influence of Chinese traditional etiquette systems and ritual values on the physical morphology of Hakka traditional dwellings, where ancestral halls are often the core of the entire building. This article selects six typical case studies of Tulous and Weilong Houses and launches a comparative study on their spatial configurations through quantitative analysis of space syntax. This study found that compared to Tulous, Weilong Houses exhibit decentralisation and gridification in their spatial structure, in addition to a decrease in defence capability and an increase in residential privatisation. The ancestral hall of the Tulou is still the spiritual and living centre of Tulou residents, located in the geometric centre and possessing high spatial configurational values. However, although the ancestral hall of the Weilong House is still located in the geometric centre of the entire building, it does not exhibit the highest spatial configurational values, indicating that the increase in secularisation and the decrease in ritualisation of Hakka communities inhabiting Weilong Houses resulted in the separation of secular space and ritual space. It coincides with the “Centre–Periphery” distribution characteristics of Hakka communities related to Tulous and Weilong Houses, reflecting the different community existence paradigms of the Hakkas “landed” and “rooted” in the Guangdong–Fujian–Jiangxi border area.

Bodily-Material Culture Techniques in the Spaces of the Devotional Revolution

Abstract This essay addresses how new procedural knowledge was promoted during the devotional revolution in nineteenth-century Ireland, particularly in relation to bodily-material culture techniques. It argues that a more orthopraxic physical disposition was a significant aspect of the experience and practice of Catholicism, and suggests ways of thinking about that in relation to religious imagination and space. In this, it sees bodies as connected to artefacts through material practices. The bodily-material culture techniques under discussion include gesture, ways of interacting with objects and spaces, and in general the embedding of new forms of material knowledge and body schema. In this, this essay re-examines the relationship between religious and secular space during this period. On the one hand, at this time the intense construction and prominent siting of thousands of religious buildings including churches, denominational institutions and entire urban quarters suggest that sacred and secular spaces were highly defined and circumscribed. However, a focus on bodies and objects also suggests the idea of immanence, and a more fluid inter-relationship between sacred and profane space than might be generally considered. The contribution draws largely on regulatory and instructive literature including catechisms and popular devotional tracts, personal testimony and specific liturgical and devotional objects and spaces.

Political Misuse of Hagia Sophia as the Lost Object of the Istanbul Conquest

For Islamist-nationalist circles in Turkey, Istanbul’s conquest in 1453 is a significant triumph inherited from the Ottoman Empire that denotes the Turkish nation’s founding moment. In this article, the Islamist-nationalist rhetoric of Istanbul’s conquest is read through melancholy as a politically manipulated project, which fixes the conquest in (spatial) images of its own “mourning” and produces “lost objects” to use as a tool of political propaganda. What are the melancholy, or lost, objects of the Islamist-nationalist rhetoric of conquest? Architecture, as the bearer of clues to the search for the conquest rhetoric’s lost objects, becomes the article’s subject. Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, whose status as a prayer space (mosque) and secular space (museum) has been the central issue of controversies, is brought forward as the lost object of the conquest rhetoric. The political misuse of the building as the lost mosque by Islamist-nationalist circles is the main focus.

Waterscapes and wet bodies: Beach culture in Atlantic Africa and the diaspora, 1444-1888

Waterscapes and Wet Bodies: Beach Culture in Atlantic Africa and the Diaspora, 1444-1888 considers how Atlantic Africans constructed social, cultural, and spiritual relationships with waterscapes. John Gillis’s historical analyses of human relationships with oceanic coastlines creating, what he called, “human shores” helps us consider how Atlantic Africans perceived and interacted with Atlantic shorelines, as well as shores along rivers and lakes. Believing water was a sacred and secular space, Africans created human shores along saltwater, freshwater, and brackish waterways where they forged enduring connections with waterscapes, a term signifying how water and adjacent lands were seamlessly merged into unifying culturescapes. Africans developed emersionary aquatic traditions—including swimming, underwater diving, surfing, canoeing, and fishing—that inspired and required them to interact with water on a daily basis. Enslaved Africans recreated and reimagined African beliefs about water and aquatic traditions throughout the Americans to help provide their lives with a sense of meaning purpose and value, as well as cultural continuity to the communities they had been stole from. Maritime maroons, who were captives who escaped across water, employed African canoeing, swimming, and paddleboarding skills and understandings of navigation to escape from slavery. They illustrate how Africans and members of the diaspora transformed the Caribbean into a physical and spiritual “sea of islands” that was part of a larger aqueous continent, linking African-descended communities in Africa, the Caribbean, North America, South America, Europe, and the spirit realm, located at the bottom of the ocean, into one vast cultural space.

“Infrasecular” geographies and the multifaceted significance of a European shrine cathedral

ABSTRACT This paper explores how the significance of the pilgrimage shrine church, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is layered and multifaceted for its local community. This cathedral is more than a sacred and pilgrimage landscape. Utilizing “infrasecular” geographies as an analytical lens, this article provides greater insight into the multifaceted and layered significance(s) of the Cathedral for the local community. It focuses more specifically on how the Cathedral can be temporarily transformed by vernacular performances of everyday community life and social interactions to produce banal and, as examined in this article, Galician nationalist (regional) space. Recognizing the continuous processes of making and unmaking of “infrasecular” geographies shifts the focus away from a binary understanding of religious versus secular space to acknowledge the dynamic and overlapping meanings of sacred landscapes within society.

The place and role of Theology in the Space of "Secular," "Sacred," and "Holy"

Despite the recognition of theology as a scientific specialty, its legal and actual consolidation as a scientific branch of knowledge in the Russian scientific and educational space, there are still many questions related to the comprehension of its place and role in the academic space. It has been revealed that theology, occupying the place of the "sacral" in the space "secular-sacred", being inside the tradition and open to the secular space, is a connecting bridge between the secular and religious, and solves the problem of overcoming the "mutual estrangement" between them. As for theology, which is in the field of the "sacred" as we see it, its main task is to preserve the original Tradition by being closed to the "secular" and the "profane". However, not being closed from the "sacred", i.e. open to the space of theology, theology fears the possibility of distortion of Tradition on the part of the theological community, which, according to some theologians, encroaches on the Sacred by its intellectual fabrications and reformatory ideas. Despite the fact that most of the theological community considers the concepts of theology and theology as synonyms, the presented study carries out their distinction, in order to understand the reasons for both the difference in views of the academic community regarding the scientific status of theology and the possibility and need for its teaching in secular universities, and within theological disagreements. Keywords: Theology, profane-secular-sacred, tradition and reformation, ultimate concern, transcending.

When the Cemetery Becomes Political: Dealing with the Religious Heritage in Multi-Ethnic Regions

When the Cemetery Becomes Political: Dealing with the Religious Heritage in Multi-Ethnic Regions

To Bury or to Burn? The Conflict between Environment for the Dead and Living Space of the Urbanization Process in Contemporary Vietnam

A grave in the cemetery or a cremation urn in a pagoda is the eternal resting place of the deceased in Vietnamese belief. It is a sacred place, playing a central role in funeral and worship rituals. Outwardly, it appears to be a place that has been separated from secular life, but in reality, every cemetery is a secular space under the management of the government or private companies. The process of urbanization in Vietnam over the past decades has caused cemeteries to increase their charges rapidly, thus, the conflict between the environment for the dead (nơi an nghỉ/nơi mai táng/nghĩa trang) and the living space is increasingly fierce. In that context, cremating and sending the cremation urn of loved ones to the temple seems like a reasonable solution for many families nowadays. However, the diversity of religions and beliefs in Vietnam along with the confusion or loss of urns in some pagodas recently has led to the debate of burial or cremation becoming a very passionate topic among the family and the whole society. Based on the anthropology of death approach, this research focuses on the contemporary discourses on the concept of the afterlife as well as the challenges caused by the massive urbanization process in Vietnam over the past three decades. This research endeavors to discover how the Vietnamese government and people are facing these challenges.

창작발레 〈효녀 심청〉에 나타난 유 · 불 · 선 사상 연구

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, the three major Korean thoughts and their embodiment in the creative ballet choreographed and directed by this researcher, Filial Daughter Shim Cheong. In this ballet, the story of ‘Shim Cheong’, which contains the particular theme of filial piety in Korean society, is researched from the perspective of these three major thoughts, and the motif is reflected in the creation. The Confucian filial piety of serving the father close, the Buddhist belief that sacrifices for the father’s recovering eyesight and salvation, and the Taoist retributive justice and view of cosmology that such sacrificial filial piety obtains rewards and happiness with the help of heaven are revealed through newly devised mimes, dramatic narrative ballet, choreography emphasizing on expressivity, song lyrics to convey message, and secular space in contrast with fantasy made by using Korean elements in costumes, music and dance vocabularies in this work. This study is meaningful in that such an approach from the three perspectives can facilitate the understanding of ‘Korean ballet’ and affect on laying the foundation for creation with Korean materials.

Уявлення про османів в Італії в XV-XVI століттях: дослідження крізь текстиль

The article is an attempt to supplement the knowledge of Italians' ideas about Ottomans during the 15th and 16th centuries, using the preserved antique textiles of both cultures, as well as fabrics' mentions in written and visual sources. Modern technological research methods of ancient textiles make it possible to clarify their attributive data, which in turn contributes to more definite conclusions about artistic exchanges in the field of decoration of expensive textiles. Thus, for example, it turned out that two fabrics from the collection of the Khanenko Museum, which were considered Italian, are the work of Ottoman masters. If the structure of the Italian and Ottoman fabrics of the period under the study are quite different, visually – they are often almost identical. Despite the fact that the trade in Ottoman fabrics was not widespread in Italy during the 15th and 16th centuries, Italian painters and weavers still actively imitated the textile products of the Middle East. Written sources, especially epistolary and inventory, are also filled with references to Ottoman fabrics and "turkish-style" textiles. Since there were few authentic silks from West Asia in the secular space of Italian cities at the time, it is likely that citizens could even associate Ottoman culture with certain types of local textiles that looked like "Turkish". The number and peculiarities of their description in written sources suggest the Italians' enormous interest in Ottoman culture, "cautious concern" for the growing Ottoman Empire, and recognition of its dominance over many Asian peoples. All this took place in spite of the permanent wars between the Venetian Republic and the Ottomans. The entry into Italian fashion of fabrics "in the Turkish style" was lightning fast. However, local authors emphasized the antiquity of this fashion tradition, to some extent rooting the idea of ​​kinship between the two cultures.

From Medicalizing State to Sacralizing Status of Thai Buddhist Monks in Secular Space: A Case Study of the Priest Hospital

This paper examines the sacred status of Thai Buddhist monks who have been engaging with the modern secular healthcare system, which also contrasts with their monastic traditions. It questions how modern medication has affected the sacred figure of Thai monks and what is their reaction to maintain their sacred status in such a secular space? Participant observations and informal interviews have been conducted, and data are conceptualized through the ideas of the birth of the clinic and biopower proposed by Michel Foucault. It finds that the traditional healing previously played by Thai monks has been challenged by modern medication eventually the monks also access the modern hospital. This phenomenon helps to change the idea of the cause of sickness, from demons to germs. This is interesting when some Buddhists request the monastic code-based healthcare system and monk patients’ zone. This paper argues that such an effort aims to maintain the sacred status of monks, who are perceived as holy persons and should not be seen by laypeople especially when they are in sickness, pain, and sorrow, which portray their ordinary human natures. Therefore, zoning management in the government hospital is needed to sacralize the monks’ status.

Parohia Cofetăria: Industrial, Religious and Communal Space. A Case Study on Patrimony as Inherited from Communism and its Transformations

Abstract The fall of communism, more than three decades ago, set in motion a strong religious comeback in Romania. This increase in Romanians practicing religion was felt across all denominations not just the Orthodox. In order to cope with the sudden increase of churchgoers, a large number of places of worship were built in a relatively short period of time. In some places, where material resources were limited, part of the industrial heritage left behind by communism was rearranged and transformed into a religious space (e.g., chapels and monasteries). The case study presented below shows the spectacular transformation of a former food laboratory into an Orthodox chapel in the early 2000s. Even if it is a small town, it reflects many of the questions and dilemmas when reconverting a religious space into a secular space and vice versa, namely: political and religious interference in small semi-rural communities, new forms of community cooperation between believers and members of the clergy, but also advancing modernity and accompanying changes in everyday religious life (la religion en train de se faire – fr). This study also shows how the Orthodox canonical requirements related to the consecration-construction of a sacred space were adapted to a completely atypical space – a sign of the vitality and adaptability of the church at the beginning of the millennium.

Rituals of entering adulthood in the religious and secular space (sociological reflections)

The text deals with the rituals of passage, granting and approval accompanying entering adulthood. These considerations refer to both theoretical issues, taking into account the typology of rituals proposed by Pierre Bourdieu, and to selected results of own research (quantitative and qualitative) carried out at the end of the first decade of the 21st century among high school graduates of the Świętokrzyskie region. The ritual practices that are still important for young people (confirmation, "eighteenth" and high school graduation) were taken into account, although the manner of their celebration and the functions performed are subject to more or less significant transformations.

L’écriture de l’Italie chez Dominique Fernandez : sacralisation d’un espace profane

"Italy in the Writings of Dominique Fernandez: The Sacralization of a Profane Space. For Dominique Fernandez, writing about Italy is associated with a quest for original androgyny. The Italian space supports a return to a primitive existence. Synonymous with freedom and sexual undifferentiation, it allows us to find prelapsarian paradise, where the boundaries between the sexes did not exist. Mircea Eliade’s works follow the same logic. Indeed, the author studies the nostalgia for the origins which incites man to discover the mythical primordial era sanctified by the gods. Hence, this article blends the historical-religious endeavor with the literary approach which, though unable to go back in time, keeps repeating it indefinitely, thanks to the demiurgic power of the writer. Keywords: Italy, sacred space, secular space, lost paradises, writing "

Theology in the Church and at the secular university: Features and problems

In an interview with Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, several topics are touched upon concerning the nature of Christian theology, the differences between the theology of the Church proper, which exists in theological schools and in the Orthodox theological community, and theology in universities, which is recognized in Russia as a field of the humanities and a group of specialties for which degrees are awarded. Theology as a field institutionally unites different confessional theologies — primarily the traditional religious confessions: Orthodoxy, Islam, and Judaism. Metropolitan Hilarion defends the idea that theology in this secular space should be confessional, and therefore it is necessary to approbate theological research by the relevant religious organizations. At the same time, Metropolitan Hilarion supports the principle of academic freedom, meaning freedom of theological research within the framework of religious traditions and referring readers to historical examples that are the subject of patrology. In the second part of the conversation, Metropolitan Hilarion describes his own path in theology — from the first patrological works to the latest large-scale project of New Testament theology, the fruit of which was a six-volume study dedicated to Jesus Christ as a historical character and as a Man revealing God. This conversation, on the one hand, outlines the position of the Church in relation to theology in its ecclesiastical and secular dimensions, and, on the other hand, reflects the personal history of an authoritative Orthodox theologian, who responds to the challenges of the time and offers a modern interpretation of the main theological topics, while remaining faithful to the unbroken church tradition.

Effect Local Direction on Balinese Traditional Settlement Layout, Case Study: Pengotan Traditional Village in Bali, Indonesia

The pattern of Pengotan Village is extended from the kaja (sacred) to the kelod (profane), which consists of three zones, namely the Utama (zone of sacred) as the space intended for shrines (temple), Madya (transition/between space) as the space for residential housing units, and the Nista zone (zone of profane) intended for the graveyard (setra). This pattern is repeated in clusters of residential housing units. The aim of this study is spatial analysis of luan (sacred) and teben (profane) orientations in Indigenous Village Pengotan through an approach: (1) history of the Traditional Village Pengotan, (2) conception of the mountain as a sacred direction, (3) conception luan (holy) and teben (profane) on settlements in the mountainous area, (4) general concepts of religious and secular space and (5) conception of signifier and signified spaces in architecture. The method used is naturalistic interpretive in studying the area in a conceptual (intangible) and concreate (tangible) context through empirical studies on sensual (observation), native's viewpoint, logic viewpoint (researcher's perspective), and intangible aspects. The results of this study are (1) spatial patterns based on luan (sacred) and teben (profane) conception; (2) the signifier and signified system in the space of on luan (holy) and teben (profane) orientation and (3) the relationship between Mount Batur and Mount Abang as luan (sacred) orientation in the Pengotan Village.

Feminist approaches in the geographies of religion: experience, emotions, everydayness and embodiment in postsecular society and space

Recently, geography has included in research the increasing role of religion in postmodern Western society and space. Religion is no more being understood as an objective truth, but as an individual experience of a person with a significant impact on the perception of space and place-making. This problematic undoubtedly requires a new theoretical and empirical perception in the new geographies of religion. This paper appeals for the geographical study of the relation between religion and (postsecular) space could be significantly enhanced using feminist approaches, which enable the inclusion of personal experiences and individuality in the geographies of religion. Using the feminist approaches, the changes in religious climate, ongoing currently in the West, including Czechia, could be better addressed in geography. Thus, the paper theoretically discusses the potential of feminist approaches and argues especially for the relevancy of four topics, personal experience of people, emotions, embodiment, and the everydayness, which can offer new insights into understandings of the relation between religion and space. Similarly, methodologies used by feminist scholars provide unique option for getting to know how religious people interact with sacred as well as secular space. Therefore, the paper aims to justify the contribution of feminist approaches and the empirical research considering the creation of sacred space and framing the everyday religious experience of people.