Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces

Christian historian Sidney Mead has observed: ""In America space has played the part that time has played in older cultures of the world."" In Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces, Jon Pahl examines this provocative statement in conversation with what he calls the ""spatial character"" of American theology. He argues that places are always imaginatively constructed by the human beings who inhabit them. Sometimes this spatial theology works to our benefit; other times it poses spiritual risks. What happens when our banal ""clothing of the sacred"" violates our genuine need for comfort and intimacy? Or when we remember that the fleeting pleasures of a shopping trip or a Disneyland escape are designed to fill someone else's pocket rather than the spiritual emptiness in our own hearts? Pahl develops several ways to ""clothe the divine from within the Christian tradition."" He introduces a theology of place that reveals aspects of God's character through biblical metaphors drawn from physical spaces, such as the true vine, the rock, and the living water. Accessible and thought provoking, this enlightening book provides a better grasp of our particularly American way of lending religious significance to spaces of all kinds.

Author: Jon Pahl
Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
Published: 12/29/2008
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9781606083970
ISBN10: 160608397X
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Spirituality
- Religion | Christian Theology | General
- Religion | Christian Living | General

About the Author
Jon Pahl teaches theology and is an associate professor of American religious history at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.