architecture, religious

The design of buildings for specifi cally religious purposes. Religious 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 animals 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 fi rst and grandest structures to be built. From the temples and pyramids of ancient Egypt (see EGYPTIAN 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 fi nest skills of architects and artisans. People have thought that only the best is worthy of GOD or the gods, and because such places are usually community centers as well as places of worship, they refl ect 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 refl ect the culture as well as the faith of the community. Buildings intended for worship provide a space, or total environment, in which the religious reality 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 instinctively 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 congregational worship, an assembly place for the People of God. SHINTO shrines, Hindu temples, some Buddhist temples, and many of the ancient temples are chiefl y homes of the deity. They are built as one would, in the respective culture, construct the palace of a king or other great fi gure who is venerated and honored. They present courts where visitors may come to pay respects and present petitions, 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 fi le by the divine presence in a steady stream, or gather in a courtyard to watch the ceremonies. Today Muslim MOSQUES, Christian churches, and Jewish SYNAGOGUES are primarily places for congregational worship. The architectural emphasis is on providing facilities for large meetings, with good acoustics for music and sermons, and an inspirational atmosphere for corporate worship. Some churches in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and some Buddhist temples, fi nd 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 presence, 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, understated Shinto shrine, and the more massive Buddhist 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 mainland, retains a touch of Chinese infl uence in its architecture, and through the dark mysterious feel of its interior a sense of the philosophical depths plumbed by BUDDHISM. Many Hindu temples, especially in the south of India, have high facades (mandir) so richly carved they seem overfl owing 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 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 fi nding 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, fulfi lls its religious function excellently. It is a meeting-place for the House of ISLAM and a place where the faithful are called to PRAYER, and it bespeaks with its clean empty space the infi nity of the One God, Creator of the worlds, who cannot 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 building 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 important meetings and proclamations. Then came the Romanesque church, a squarish domed building with high narrow windows that, in the Dark Ages when it fl ourished, strongly told of the church as a fortress, a place of refuge both physically and spiritually 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 richness 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, refl ects Protestant restraint. In the 20th century churches have been built in new styles made possible by new technologies 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. The Jewish temple or synagogue also basically adopted the model of the Roman basilica, because its primary function after the Diaspora or dispersion of Jews throughout the world was to serve as a place of meeting for worship and study. Features of the ancient temple at Jerusalem, however, have also been used, along with other reminders of Near East origins such as domed windows and doors. In recent times Jewish temples and synagogues, especially in the United States, have experimented with modern architectural forms. Throughout history architecture has been one of the most important of all forms of religious art, capable of conveying messages as profound as any other art about the nature of the human relation to the divine.