The Performances of Sacred Places Crossing, Breathing, Resisting

This collection offers a multi-layered, contemporary analysis of sacred sites and their practices, politics, and ecologies. Presenting practice-as-research accounts alongside theoretical analysis, this multidisciplinary volume brings together religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and performance studies. By focusing on practice and performance rather than theology, it also expands the notion of sacred places to contexts beyond institutionalized religion. The questions investigated are: what is a sacred place? Is a place inherently sacred or does it become sacred? Is it a paradigm, a real location, an imaginary place, a projected condition, a charged setting, an enhanced perception? What kind of practices and processes allow the emergence of a sacred place in human perception? And what is its function in contemporary societies? In exploring these questions and more, Silvia Battista challenges the conventional understanding of sacred places in contemporary contexts and sparks lively new debate on the roles of religiosity and spirituality.