Architecture of the Sacred : Space, Ritual, and Experience From Classical Greece to Byzantium

"In this book, a distinguished team of authors investigates the role of architecture in the construction of sacred experience in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine cultures"-- "In this book, a distinguished team of authors explores the way space, place, architecture, and ritual interact to construct sacred experience in the historical cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. Essays address fundamental issues and features that enable buildings to perform as spiritually transformative spaces in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine civilizations. Collectively they demonstrate the multiple ways in which works of architecture and their settings were active agents in the ritual process. Architecture did not merely host events; rather, it magnified and elevated them, interacting with rituals facilitating the construction of ceremony. This book examines comparatively the ways in which ideas and situations generated by the interaction of place, built environment, ritual action, and memory contributed to the cultural formulation of the sacred experience in different religious faiths"-- Cover......Page 1 ARCHITECTURE OF THE SACRED......Page 3 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 CONTENTS......Page 7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS......Page 9 CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS......Page 16 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 21 PREFACE......Page 23 CHAPTER ONE: MATERIAL CULTURE AND RITUAL: STATE OF THE QUESTION......Page 27 CHAPTER TWO: MONUMENTAL STEPS AND THE SHAPING OF CEREMONY......Page 53 Dimensions, Behavior, Perception......Page 54 Steps as Routes of Access: Processions......Page 56 Processional Steps......Page 58 Theatral Steps......Page 72 CHAPTER THREE: COMING AND GOING IN THE SANCTUARY OF THE GREAT GODS, SAMOTHRACE......Page 92 Building History......Page 96 Components of the Design and Architectural Resonance......Page 106 Circular Associations......Page 118 Leaving the Circle......Page 119 CHAPTER FOUR: ENTERING DEMETER’S GATEWAY: THE ROMAN PROPYLON IN THE CITY ELEUSINION......Page 140 The Eleusinian Procession......Page 141 The Sacred Way......Page 143 Links between the City Eleusinion and the Sanctuary at Eleusis......Page 147 The Fifth Century B.C.E. Propylon at Eleusis......Page 148 The Propylon of Appius Claudius Pulcher at Eleusis......Page 149 The Greater Propylaia at Eleusis......Page 154 A Hadrianic Propylon in the City Eleusinion......Page 155 The Second Sophistic......Page 166 CHAPTER FIVE: ARCHITECTURE AND RITUAL IN ILION, ATHENS, AND ROME......Page 178 CHAPTER SIX: THE SAME, BUT DIFFERENT: THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER OPTIMUS MAXIMUS THROUGH TIME......Page 201 The Temple......Page 202 Temple Contents......Page 213 The Statue of Jupiter Optimus Maximus......Page 216 Emulation and the Construction of Sanctity......Page 220 CHAPTER SEVEN: MAPPING SACRIFICE ON BODIES AND SPACES IN LATE ANTIQUE JUDAISM AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY......Page 227 Introduction......Page 257 The Bone Deposit......Page 260 An Apotropaic Deposit?......Page 261 Evidence for Priests and Priestly Influence in the Dura Synagogue......Page 262 CHAPTER NINE: SIGHT LINES OF SANCTITY AT LATE ANTIQUE MARTYRIA......Page 274 Physical Separation and Visual Connection......Page 277 Orchestrating Sight Lines......Page 285 More Relics Under the Altar......Page 291 Conclusion......Page 295 CHAPTER TEN: THE SANCTITY OF PLACE AND THE SANCTITY OF BUILDINGS: JERUSALEM VERSUS CONSTANTINOPLE......Page 307 CHAPTER ELEVEN: DIVINE LIGHT: CONSTRUCTING THE IMMATERIAL IN BYZANTINE ART AND ARCHITECTURE......Page 333 CHAPTER TWELVE: STRUCTURE, AGENCY, RITUAL, AND THE BYZANTINE CHURCH......Page 364 AFTERWORD......Page 391 INDEX......Page 403 Machine generated contents note: Preface Robert G. Ousterhout and Bonna D. Wescoat; 1. Material culture and ritual: state of the question Jaś Elsner; 2. Monumental steps and the shaping of ceremony Mary B. Hollinshead; 3. Coming and going in the sanctuary of the great gods, Samothrace Bonna D. Wescoat; 4. Gateways to the mysteries: the Roman propylon and in the City Eleusinion Margaret M. Miles; 5. Architecture and ritual in Ilion, Athens, and Rome C. Brian Rose; 6. The same, but different: the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus through time Ellen Perry; 7. Mapping sacrifice on bodies and spaces in ancient Judaism and early Christianity Joan Branham; 8. The 'foundation deposit' from the Dura Europos Synagogue reconsidered Jodi Magness; 9. Sight lines of sanctity at Late Antique Martyria Ann Marie Yasin; 10. The sanctity of place and the sanctity of buildings: Jerusalem vs. Constantinople Robert G. Ousterhout; 11. Divine light: constructing the immaterial in Byzantine art and architecture Slobodan Ćurčić; 12. Architecture as a definer of sanctity in the monastery tou Libos in Constantinople Vasileios Marinis; Afterword Bonna D. Wescoat and Robert G. Ousterhout. "In this book, a distinguished team of authors explores the way space, place, architecture, and ritual interact to construct sacred experience in the historical cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. Essays address fundamental issues and features that enable buildings to perform as spiritually transformative spaces in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine civilizations. Collectively they demonstrate the multiple ways in which works of architecture and their settings were active agents in the ritual process. Architecture did not merely host events ; rather, it magnified and elevated them, interacting with rituals facilitating the construction of ceremony. This book examines comparatively the ways in which ideas and situations generated by the interaction of place, built environment, ritual action, and memory contributed to the cultural formulation of the sacred experience in different religious faiths"--Provided by publisher "In this book, a distinguished team of authors explores the way space, place, architecture, and ritual interact to construct sacred experience in the historical cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. Essays address fundamental issues and features that enable buildings to perform as spiritually transformative spaces in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine civilizations. Collectively they demonstrate the multiple ways in which works of architecture and their settings were active agents in the ritual process. Architecture did not merely host events; rather, it magnified and elevated them, interacting with rituals facilitating the construction of ceremony. This book examines comparatively the ways in which ideas and situations generated by the interaction of place, built environment, ritual action, and memory contributed to the cultural formulation of the sacred experience in different religious faiths"--Note de l'éditeur

In this book, a distinguished team of authors explores the way space, place, architecture, and ritual interact to construct sacred experience in the historical cultures of the eastern Mediterranean. Essays address fundamental issues and features that enable buildings to perform as spiritually transformative spaces in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine civilizations. Collectively they demonstrate the multiple ways in which works of architecture and their settings were active agents in the ritual process. Architecture did not merely host events; rather, it magnified and elevated them, interacting with rituals facilitating the construction of ceremony. This book examines comparatively the ways in which ideas and situations generated by the interaction of place, built environment, ritual action, and memory contributed to the cultural formulation of the sacred experience in different religious faiths.

"In this book, a distinguished team of authors investigates the role of architecture in the construction of sacred experience in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine cultures"-- Provided by publisher "In this book, a distinguished team of authors investigates the role of architecture in the construction of sacred experience in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and Byzantine cultures"--Note de l'éditeur Contributors investigate the role of architecture in the construction of sacred experience in ancient Greek, Roman, Jewish, Christian and Byzantine cultures