The Encyclopedia of World Religions

architecture, religious S 29

traditions have always wanted to set aside sacred places for WORSHIP , seeing them as dwelling places of gods or as locations where the presence of the divine could be especially experienced. The caves of the Old Stone Age from as far back as 35,000 years ago, with their wonderful paintings of ani mals located almost inaccessibly deep in the Earth, were clearly sacred sites of some kind. As soon as developing technology enabled human beings to do so, religious shrines were among the first and grandest structures to be built. From the temples and pyramids of ancient Egypt ( see E GYPTIAN RELIGION ) to the cathedrals and temples of the Middle Ages and today around the world, these buildings have often employed the richest materials and called forth the finest skills of architects and artisans. People have thought that only the best is worthy of G OD or the gods, and because such places are usually community cen ters as well as places of worship, they reflect the pride and common purposes of a town or society. In many places today, the church or temple is the oldest and most central building in a community, and one that in its history, design, and artwork is best thought to reflect the culture as well as the faith of the community. Buildings intended for worship provide a space, or total environment, in which the religious real ity believed in by these people comes alive through the use of symbols and the evocation of memories. Everywhere one looks there may be a symbolic reminder of some truth of the faith, or scenes that recall previous times of worship or sacred events participated in by oneself or one’s people. Often, it has the special feel of sacred space; one may instinc tively talk in hushed tones and act differently in a religious building than one does outside. This may particularly be the case during rites or services. Religious buildings are basically of two types: those that are seen primarily as the House of God, and those that are planned primarily for congrega tional worship, an assembly place for the People of God. S HINTO shrines, Hindu temples, some Bud dhist temples, and many of the ancient temples are chiefly homes of the deity. They are built as one would, in the respective culture, construct the

Marija Gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982); Charles Keith Maisels, Early Civilizations of the Old World (New York: Routledge, 1999); P. R. S. Moorey, A Century of Biblical Archaeology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991); Harvey Whitehouse and Luther H. Martin, eds., Theorizing Religions Past: Archaeology, History, and Cognition (Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 2004). archetype Pattern or model. Two important 20th-century thinkers about religions developed the term archetype in very influential ways: Carl Gustav J UNG and Mircea E LIADE . Jung was a psychologist. He believed that all human beings shared a certain kind of uncon scious, the “collective unconscious.” In his eyes, the collective unconscious contained fundamental symbols or archetypes necessary to personal well being. One example is the MANDALA , a geometric diagram of squares, circles, and other designs around a center point. One of his followers, Erich Neumann, developed an archetype that he called the “Great Mother” ( see GODDESSES ). Among other places, Jung thought archetypes could be seen especially in dreams and myths. Mircea Eliade was a historian of religions. He divided human beings into two general classes: “archaic man” and “modern man.” Eliade consid ered archaic man to be homo religiosus. That is, religion defined the way archaic people looked at and lived in the world. In particular, archaic peo ple lived their lives according to archetypes. These archetypes were revealed at the beginning of time and recorded in myth ( see MYTH AND MYTHOLOGY ). By contrast, Eliade considered modern people to be secular. But they have not lost the archetypes completely. They have simply become unaware of them. As a result, Eliade said, religious arche types recur in cultural forms such as art, literature, music, and film.

architecture, religious The design of build ings for specifically religious purposes. Religious