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Article: American Sacred Space.
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- January 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Edited by David Chidester and Edward T. Linenthal. Indiana University Press, 352 pp., $18.95 paperback.
ONE WAY to review a book is to use it, as I did with this collection of essays. My students found much to appreciate in this adventuresome volume, but they also located some problems.
The topic is certainly timely. "Sacred space" was initially the subject only of academic treatises and discussion, most notably in the pioneering work of Mircea Eliade. Now one can buy "sacred space" calendars, travelogues and even CDs which promise to "re-create" the sense of various places associated with the sacred. David Chidester and Edward T. Linenthal have set ...