Three models of understanding, Evan Moog

Lane gives three approaches that help understand the study of sacred places. The ontological approach looks at the historical influences on a sacred site, but fails to appreciate the role that humans play through culture. The cultural approach looks at the cultural influences on a sacred site and how people and society affected a specific site. The last approach helps combine the two previous ideas. The phenomenological approach looks at the interaction between human and landscape at a sacred place in order to see the influence of both history and the environment as well as humans and culture. These approaches continue to help the study of sacred landscapes and how they are formed.