This substantially expanded edition of Belden C. Lane's Landscapes of the Sacred includes a new introductory chapter that offers three new interpretive models for understanding American sacred space. Lane maintains his approach of interspersing shorter and more personal pieces among full-length essays that explore how Native American, early French and Spanish, Puritan New England, and Catholic Worker traditions has each expressed the connection between spirituality and place. A new section at the end of the book includes three chapters that address methodological issues in the study of spirituality, the symbol-making process of religious experience, and the tension between place and placelessness in Christian spirituality.

Captures magical spaces - archetypal and architectural manifestations of the sacred. This title illustrates the ways in which people have used and understood their sacred landscapes throughout history and around the world, from hillside Celtic oak initiation groves to Megalithic open-air sanctuaries to Macchu Picchu and Oregon's Crater Lake.

Social and behavioral scientists study religion or spirituality in various ways and have defined and approached the subject from different perspectives. In cultural anthropology and archaeology the understanding of what constitutes religion involves beliefs, oral traditions, practices and rituals, as well as the related material culture including artifacts, landscapes, structural features and visual representations like rock art. Researchers work to understand religious thoughts and actions that prompted their creation distinct from those created for economic, political, or social purposes. Rock art landscapes convey knowledge about sacred and spiritual ecology from generation to generation. Contributors to this global view detail how rock art can be employed to address issues regarding past dynamic interplays of religions and spiritual elements. Studies from a number of different cultural areas and time periods explore how rock art engages the emotions, materializes thoughts and actions and reflects religious organization as it intersects with sociopolitical cultural systems.

Known from the Old Testament as one of the tribes occupying the Promised Land, the Hittities were in reality a powerful neighbouring kingdom: highly advanced in political organization, administration of justice and military genius; with a literature inscribed in cuneiform writing on clay tablets; and with a rugged and individual figurative art ... Newly revised and updated, this classic account reconstructs a complete and balanced picture of Hittite civilization, using both established and more recent sources.

“What does it mean to see the American landscape in a secular way?” asks Nicolas Howe at the outset of this innovative, ambitious, and wide-ranging book. It’s a surprising question because of what it implies: we usually aren’t seeing American landscapes through a non-religious lens, but rather as inflected by complicated, little-examined concepts of the sacred. Fusing geography, legal scholarship, and religion in a potent analysis, Howe shows how seemingly routine questions about how to look at a sunrise or a plateau or how to assess what a mountain is both physically and ideologically, lead to complex arguments about the nature of religious experience and its implications for our lives as citizens. In American society—nominally secular but committed to permitting a diversity of religious beliefs and expressions—such questions become all the more fraught and can lead to difficult, often unsatisfying compromises regarding how to interpret and inhabit our public lands and spaces. A serious commitment to secularism, Howe shows, forces us to confront the profound challenges of true religious diversity in ways that often will have their ultimate expression in our built environment. This provocative exploration of some of the fundamental aspects of American life will help us see the land, law, and society anew.

Steven Lewis's Landscape as Sacred Space: Metaphors for the Spiritual Journey invites new discussions about our spiritual journeys and allows seekers to rethink approaches to Christian spirituality and theology in light of postmodernity. Landscape metaphors provide a common and accessible language to articulate one's spiritual journey. Spiritual mountains, deserts, and valleys are dominant landscapes on our journey through life. Most people have experienced the joy of a mountaintop spiritual experience, the pain of spiritual deserts, or perhaps the dreariness too often associated with spiritual valleys. There is a tendency, however, to highlight spiritual mountaintops, while avoiding spiritual deserts and ignoring spiritual valleys. This leaves many Christians ill-equipped either to deal with crises or to integrate God into ordinary life. Each landscape offers rich lessons that, when combined together, lead us toward a maturing faith and into a deeper relationship with God. 'Landscape as Sacred Space' is intended to aid those who search for more meaningful ways to articulate their faith journey. The book grants permission to struggle with life's landscapes, provides safe spaces to reflect on the journey, and introduces language that enables exploration and discovery.

The desire to soothe our souls has perhaps never been greater. This collection of lyrical meditations, prayers, contemplations, devotionals and psalms, can be the spiritual balm we desperately need right now. Enjoy 111 passages structured around nine metaphorical landscapes guiding the reader over emotional terrains on a journey toward peace and transcendence, while providing a sense of place to be mined for inner awareness. We can't help bring about much-needed change in the world if we aren't engaged in some form of self-healing. What is happening on the global stage is a reflection of what is transpiring within. Sacred Landscapes of the Soul gently assists in the process by helping us to find the wisdom, wit and wherewithal to embrace our challenges and celebrate our spiritual liberation. We are each meant to become a magnanimous and beneficial presence on the planet. When we consciously choose to align with the divine within, we tap into wellsprings of faith, hope, and connection. Together we heal the world--this comforting and encouraging message rings out from every page and will resonate with readers wherever they are on life's journey.