Ryan Gibson (Landscapes of the Sacred)

Belden C. Lane's book, Landscapes Of The Sacred, attempts to define what it means to be a sacred place expressing the relationship between human spirituality and place. In the introduction, Lane admits that the interplay of cultural, religious, and ecological forces shaping a site's ability to be known as a sacred place is not precise, and open to interpretation. Obviously, there are undisputed locations that are renownedly known as sacred like Jerusalem, but what exactly makes this site sacred? For this example, religion plays a major part in the level of sacredness, but is the mere fact that influential religious actions were believed to have happened in the past at this location make it Sacred? While the history of Jesus' interaction with Jerusalem is important in making it sacred, I believe there are other factors contributing to its description of Sacred regardless of religious views. Lane writes, "In some cases, "sacred sites" are able to function wholly apart from any institutionalized religious structure or any dominate cultural pattern of civil religion. What matters most in defining such places as "holy" is the presence of ritual activity and symbolic meaning, as well as a language that claims vigorous ownership of the site"(50). This being said, the religious historical significance is important for making Jerusalem a sacred site, but the continual ritual observance of this site by many different cultures has a big part in keeping Jerusalem's identity as a holy site. This example helps exemplify the combination of many different factors, in this case specifically religion and culture, in turing a landscape into a sacred one.