In a series of pioneering studies, this book examines the creation-and the conflict behind the creation-of sacred space in America. The essays in this volume visit places in America where economic, political, and social forces clash over the sacred and the profane, from wilderness areas in the American West to the Mall in Washington, D.C., and they investigate visions of America as sacred space at home and abroad. Here are the beginnings of a new American religious history-told as the story of the contested spaces it has inhabited.

The contributors are David Chidester, Matthew Glass, Edward T. Linenthal, Colleen McDannell, Robert S. Michaelsen, Rowland A. Sherrill, and Bron Taylor.

Explorations of the meaning and power of sacred space in America.

About the Author

DAVID CHIDESTER is Professor of Comparative Religion and Director of the Institute for Comparative Religion in Southern Africa at the University of Cape Town. His recent books include Shots in the Streets: Violence and Religion in South Africa and Word and Light: Seeing, Hearing, and Religious Discourse. EDWARD T. LINENTHAL is Professor of Religion and American Culture at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and author of Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields and Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum.

Reviews
"American Sacred Space makes a pivotal contribution to the theoretical dialogue surrounding issues of sacrality and space. It will be of immense value not only to scholars concerned with these issues, but also to teachers of American religions who seek to clarify for their students what terms are most useful in comprehending how Americans fashion and refashion sacred places." - Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion "It is a graceful and important work of cultural history, essential to the student of the consumer culture, nationalism and memory." - Journal of American History "One way to review a book is to use it ... My students found much to appreciate in this adventuresome volume ..." - Christian Century "This book is a welcome and interesting addition to the growing, and increasingly theoretically sophisticated, literature on sense of place." - Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review "... excellent essays . . " - Journal of Church and State



Book Information
ISBN 9780253210067
Author David Chidester
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 594g