April 6, 2010- Sacred Space and Time

This lecture, building upon last Thursday, focused on the general concepts of Sacred space and time, while getting more specific in terms of these concepts as they apply to the development of Jerusalem. In biblical stories ranging from the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 to David's building of an altar at the Threshing floor in 1 Chronicles 21-22, the development of sacred space has been marked both by ritual procedure as well as the common theme of divine dictation. Whereas the consecration (and physical construction) of the space itself is the work of humanity, such sacred space is located only at those spots supposedly dictated by god to the person with whom he is communicating.

While this idea was brought up briefly last lecture, the new theme of sacred time came to the forefront today. Beginning with the divine creation of the sabbath, faiths across the board have developed what are now commonly known as "holidays" out of the biblical procedures handed down from the heavens. Although many of these holidays, including the sabbath, are justified by various (and sometimes conflicting) means throughout the bible and other texts, they all portray the common thread of importance in time for those involved in faith. Whereas the development of sacred places did not including specific reference to common "places of worship" that abound today (save for the divine Temples- but worship could occur anywhere), time is singled out and set aside specifically for religious purpose. Within the Christian faith that dominates today, we see the importance of time in the simple fact that, although churches differ widely in design, location, and even specific sect, they all worship on Sunday, the sabbath (well, at least most do, but you get the point). Whether one worships in a tent on the outskirts of Jackson, Wyoming or a church in the heart of New York City is irrelevant. But leaving Sunday as the designated time of that worship is.