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Spaces for the Sacred: Place, Memory, and Identity By Philip Sheldrake Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. 213 pp. $15.95.
This is a book full of provocative suggestions, ranging widely from public to private spaces in a search for more humane landscapes, language, and architectural models in deserts, monasteries, and cities: "a sense of place," where human beings can reconnect with the sacred. Although Sheldrake suggests that one purpose of his book as to allow us to "dwell" in a "place" or "sacred space," curiously, he rarely "dwells" anywhere. We are given mostly "vignettes," as with Carol Lake's short stories Rosehill: Portraits from a Midlands City (1989). He does allow us to dwell a bit with Julian of Norwich in his chapter on mysticism. There he suggests that Julian's visions and teachings "create a sense of unity with the world of human places and history," emphasizing the importance of social context and action for most mystics. His continuous movement through multiple theological and spiritual landscapes stands in contrast to...