Sacred spaces in christianity and other religions

A necessary inter-religious sacred space

Abstract

Architecture as cosmogonic and religious art. The sacred space. Architecture has a sacred function, as a generator of a new cosmos in response to human distress; space created to conjure the horror vacui before the cosmos and put order in a chaos full of evil spirits. All space is sacred; any place is valid to communicate with the Divine. But there are places where it is easier for us to get in touch with the Mystery; natural spaces or created by humans and legitimized by tradition: altars, temples and shrines, places for worship, prayer and retreat.
The sacred spaces in Christianity and other religions. a) Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches. The Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches, although born of the common Christian trunk, are different. Their different theological conceptions led to different conceptions of the liturgy that condition their temples: presbytery with altar and ambo, and place for the Eucharistic reservation in Catholicism; sanctuary, iconostasis ... in orthodoxy; the place for the Word and the chorus in the Protestants. b) The sacred space in other religions. Fundamental characteristics for the worship and prayer of other religions: Muslim mosques (courtyards, mihrab, iwanes, sources, texts of the Koran); Jewish synagogues (tabernacle, teba with amud and menorah); stupas and Hindu and Buddhist pagodas (burial mounds with relics, structures that represent the Buddhist cosmos); sanctuaries shinto (with his torii).
Sacred ecumenical and interreligious spaces. In the secular city we need to continue building sacred spaces; particularly ecumenical and interreligious spaces, due to the great importance of the migratory process and of cultural and religious intercommunication. a) We need not only Christian ecumenical-interdenominational spaces, but also interreligious spaces, which take into account the fundamental characteristics of the pointed religious spaces. Especially in public transit centers for different religions and cultures (hospitals, airports). Three examples: the multi-faith chapels of the Bretonneau and Trousseau hospitals (Paris) and the Texas Children's Hospital (Houston). Three magnificent ideas already carried out. They have the handicap of being centered on monotheistic religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity), although open to all, do not contemplate in an equally express way the reality of Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism).