Constructing Space: Six Communal Religious Groups and Their Spatial Worlds
by Martha Bradley Evans
University of Utah Press, 2025
Cloth: 978-1-64769-237-7 | Paper: 978-1-64769-239-1 | eISBN: 978-1-64769-238-4
Library of Congress Classification BL619.S63B73 2025
Dewey Decimal Classification 255.00973
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Worldviews and experiences of place among noted religious communities
Religion transforms and inspires specific ways of living in the world. Through architecture and the built environment, members of religious communities communicate intangible beliefs about God, gender and family, the sacred and profane, and more. This captivating volume explores the spatial worlds of six different religious communities— the Latter-day Saints, the Oneida Colony, the Shakers, the Branch Davidians, the FLDS, and Adidam—through the architecture and cultural landscapes they built.
What does the strict order and regularity of a Shaker village tell us about the community’s hierarchies and relationships? How might a temple building site affect an LDS Church member’s daily life? Constructing Space reveals the hidden language of meaning, association, and identity that religious persons speak as they mold their faith into concrete forms, and how they interpret the meanings of those spaces within their practices.
Religion transforms and inspires specific ways of living in the world. Through architecture and the built environment, members of religious communities communicate intangible beliefs about God, gender and family, the sacred and profane, and more. This captivating volume explores the spatial worlds of six different religious communities— the Latter-day Saints, the Oneida Colony, the Shakers, the Branch Davidians, the FLDS, and Adidam—through the architecture and cultural landscapes they built.
What does the strict order and regularity of a Shaker village tell us about the community’s hierarchies and relationships? How might a temple building site affect an LDS Church member’s daily life? Constructing Space reveals the hidden language of meaning, association, and identity that religious persons speak as they mold their faith into concrete forms, and how they interpret the meanings of those spaces within their practices.
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