This volume examines a diverse set of spaces and buildings seen through the lens of popular practice and belief to shed light on the complexities of sacred space in America. Contributors explore how dedication sermons document shifting understandings of the meetinghouse in early 19th-century Connecticut; the changes in evangelical church architecture during the same century and what that tells us about evangelical religious life; the impact of contemporary issues on Catholic church architecture; the impact of globalization on the construction of traditional sacred spaces; the urban practice of Jewish space; nature worship and Central Park in New York; the mezuzah and domestic sacred space; and, finally, the spiritual aspects of African American yard art.
In Masonic Temples, William D. Moore introduces readers to the structures American Freemasons erected over the sixty-year period from 1870 to 1930, when these temples became a ubiquitous feature of the American landscape. As representations of King Solomon’s temple in ancient Jerusalem erected in almost every American town and city, Masonic temples provided specially designed spaces for the enactment of this influential fraternity’s secret rituals. Using New York State as a case study, Moore not only analyzes the design and construction of Masonic structures and provides their historical context, but he also links the temples to American concepts of masculinity during this period of profound economic and social transformation. By examining edifices previously overlooked by architectural and social historians, Moore decodes the design and social function of Masonic architecture and offers compelling new insights into the construction of American masculinity. Four distinct sets of Masonic ritual spaces—the Masonic lodge room, the armory and drill room of the Knights Templar, the Scottish Rite Cathedral, and the Shriners’ mosque – form the central focus of this volume. Moore argues that these spaces and their accompanying ceremonies communicated four alternative masculine archetypes to American Freemasons—the heroic artisan, the holy warrior, the adept or wise man, and the frivolous jester or fool. Although not a Freemason, Moore draws from his experience as director of the Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library in New York City, where heutilized sources previously inaccessible to scholars. His work should prove valuable to readers with interests in vernacular architecture, material culture, American studies, architectural and social history, Freemasonry, and voluntary associations.
After World War II, Americans constructed an unprecedented number of synagogues, churches, cathedrals, chapels, and other structures. The book is one of the first major studies of American religious architecture in the postwar period, and it reveals the diverse and complicated set of issues that emerged just as one of the nation's biggest building booms unfolded. Price argues that the resulting structures, as often mocked as loved, were physical embodiments of an important time in American religious history.
"Impostors in the Temple is a hard-hitting, eye-opening book about the decaying moral and intellectual state of American universities and colleges today--about why things have gone so wrong, and what we can do to set them right." "The university is the intellectual engine of America. It is here future leaders are trained, national policy is framed, and standards for our huge educational infrastructure are established. Yet today, despite the staggering costs of a college education, our institutions are not making the grade. The fault lies not with the students, who are brighter than ever, but with the faculties, administrations, and trustees into whose hands we deliver our best young minds." "Martin Anderson--domestic policy adviser to two presidents and himself a member of the academic establishment for over three decades--takes American academics to task in this stirring book, sure to be hailed for its scope and clarity. Cutting through political excuses that have gone awry, Anderson addresses the simpler, unuttered truths: how irrelevant the work of our intellectals has become; how corrupt practices are rampant in our universities; how academic elitism has destroyed academic integrity; how too many of our professors are not qualified to teach; how too often it is not professors but students who are relegated to do the teaching; how trustees and administrators are shunning responsibility and looking the other way; and how, by accepting the status quo, Americans are mortgaging their children's educational futures." "In clear, vivid prose, Anderson names names, marshals statistics, turns conventional wisdom on its ear, and makes us understand how serious things have become. More important, he offers us dramatic solutions." "As provocative as Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind and Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education, Martin Anderson's Impostors in the Temple is sure to raise hackles, spur debate, and fire our imaginations on how to revitalize an American community that processes millions of our young at so steep a cost."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Following the American Revolution, the majority of Connecticut's religious societies tore down their boxy eighteenth-century meetinghouses and replaced them with something totally different: spired churches with an elaborate entrance portico on one of the shorter facades. These new buildings signaled a change in how these Christians conceptualized worship space, and in their fundamental understanding of the relationship between the spiritual and material aspects of their lives. Because these new churches evoked a much-beloved myth of tightly-bound communities sharing democratic values and faith in God, they have often been romanticized as emblems of a bygone era of pastoral serenity. Yet, New England of the early nineteenth century--and its religious life in particular--was anything but tranquil. Revivalism, evangelicalism, and religious pluralism meshed with social, economic, and political dislocation to create a volatile period in which Christianity's place was uncertain. This study argues that religious belief and practice, altered in substance and even more so in style by evangelicalism, revival, and a pervasive culture of sensibility, called for new notions of worship. These new buildings helped individuals and congregations regain their equilibrium and developed their spiritual sensibilities and sense of community. They also soothed republican concerns about the need for a religious populace and were important signs of civility and refinement. As the most striking buildings in many Connecticut towns, these churches tell us what citizens of the early republic thought was important, and what they wanted visitors to find remarkable in a distinctive American landscape.
A coffee table book of all of the temples completed in the United States. It includes photos from Scott Jarvie, facts, and personal experiences on the temples of the United States.
Templeton Richard Drake, or "T. R." as he is called by his friends, is a young veteran of the Nibian War who returns to America and tries to come to grips with his disenchantment and emotional emptiness, and the feeling that control of his life is "out of his hands." He finds solace in hard drinking, painting, and casual sex. He learns that the wealthy inventor of the "blaster-trapper," the mechanical arm that transformed the flip ball industry, has taken his life under suspicious circumstances, and taken with him to the grave the knowledge of the resting place of the Holy Grail. T. R. joins the search for the holy vessel, and his dreams and visions reveal to him his destiny; to lead a modern crusade of knights against the dark forces of the Islamic terrorist, Assama ben Licken, and retake the Holy Land for Christendom. His search for the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Spear of Destiny takes him from Mississippi to the Mediterranean, the Highlands of Scotland, the plains of Ethiopia, and the dense jungles of Mexico where an ancient temple holds the key to the fate of mankind. T. R. Drake's search for these sacred relics from the past takes him on a spiritual as well as a geographical journey, and ultimately reveals to him the power of love.
