Rebecca Johnson: The 3 Approaches to Sacred Place

In Belden C. Lane's book, Landscapes of the Sacred, we learned about the 3 approaches to sacred place. Those approaches include ontological, cultural, and phenomenological. The ontological approach suggests that a sacred place is a site recognized as manifesting its own inherent, chthonic power and numinosity, meaning it is sacred in and of itself and not due to any outside influences. The cultural approach suggests that a sacred place is a site over which conflicting parties disagree, a place about which people are willing to fight and even die. The phenomenological approach suggests that it is through human experience that a certain place becomes a sacred place. It was obvious while I was reading this, and it was mentioned in the book, that the best approach would be a combination of all three. I think there is more to a sacred place than one particular aspect of it and therefore more than just one approach should be used.

04.22.12