The Encyclopedia of World Religions

30 S architecture, religious

of the intermingling of life and the divine presence in all creatures. In the interior of the temple, often reached only after passing through outer chambers watched by guardian deities, one comes to the garbha (“womb”), the place of the principal deity, suggesting that reaching it is like finding one’s way to the ultimate mystery and source of life. The Islamic mosque, domed, spacious, and austere, with the upward-reaching minaret beside it, fulfills its religious function excellently. It is a meeting-place for the House of I SLAM and a place where the faithful are called to PRAYER , and it bespeaks with its clean empty space the infinity of the One God, Creator of the worlds, who can not be represented by any form or image made by human hands. Christian churches in western Europe have adopted several architectural styles through the centuries. First was the basilica, an oblong build ing with a central passageway or nave and a raised platform in front, based on the Roman court of law. It suggested the church as a place for impor tant meetings and proclamations. Then came the Romanesque church, a squarish domed building with high narrow windows that, in the Dark Ages when it flourished, strongly told of the church as a fortress, a place of refuge both physically and spiri tually in a troubled world. In the high Middle Ages came the Gothic cathedral, whose high pointed ceilings and spires and wonderful stained-glass windows spoke instead of aspiration heavenward. In the Renaissance and early modern period the ornate baroque style, found in churches from St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome to the Spanish missions of the southwestern United States, suggested rich ness of depth and texture. The simpler Georgian or Palladian style, with its careful proportions of plain white interiors and exteriors, found in many colonial American churches, reflects Protestant restraint. In the 20th century churches have been built in new styles made possible by new tech nologies for building as well as by new concepts of worship. There are churches made of poured concrete to resemble ships or tents, churches in the round with the pulpit or altar in the center, churches underground or atop skyscrapers.

palace of a king or other great figure who is vener ated and honored. They present courts where visi tors may come to pay respects and present peti tions, as if in homage before such a personage. Food offerings and other services are presented regularly as in a royal court. But there is no room for an entire congregation to gather in the temple, for that is not the purpose of the divine house. At times of festival, persons may file by the divine presence in a steady stream, or gather in a court yard to watch the ceremonies. Today Muslim MOSQUES , Christian churches, and Jewish SYNAGOGUES are primarily places for congregational worship. The architectural empha sis is on providing facilities for large meetings, with good acoustics for music and sermons, and an inspirational atmosphere for corporate wor ship. Some churches in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and some Buddhist temples, find ways to combine both the House of God and People of God emphases, with shrines or ALTARS for individual devotion and a sense of divine pres ence, but also room for larger services. The many different styles of architecture found throughout the religious world each have their own messages. The visitor to Japan, for example, will be struck by the contrast between the plain, rustic, under stated Shinto shrine, and the more massive Bud dhist temple, perhaps with its skyward-reaching pagoda. The Shinto structure tells of its roots in the simplicity of ancient Japanese culture and of the reserved, hidden nature of its KAMI or gods, who are seldom portrayed in images or pictures. The Buddhist temple, on the other hand, representing a faith imported to Japan from the Asian main land, retains a touch of Chinese influence in its architecture, and through the dark mysterious feel of its interior a sense of the philosophical depths plumbed by B UDDHISM . Many Hindu temples, especially in the south of India, have high facades ( mandir ) so richly carved they seem overflowing with gods and mythological beings, hinting at the richness of religious creativity in this tradition. Others are open to birds and troops of monkeys that share in the offerings along with the gods. These temples suggest the Hindu themes