A Theology of Sacred Space
The Necessary Response to the Call to Sacred Assembly
It is said that wherever Saint David (500-589) went—an evangelist to the Britons of what became Wales and, consequently, the patron saint of Wales—he planted a church.[1] We mean, of course, that wherever he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, people were saved, and, as in Acts 2:42, catechized and baptized, they gathered into a localized expression of the one true Church, with the true notae ecclesiae (the doctrine of the marks of the church) being practiced.[2] Wherever he gathered that assembly to worship God, he built a chapel for the people to gather in public worship, a public demonstration of their faith in Jesus Christ. Today, chapels of various Christian denominations are in valleys, hills, and every direction throughout Wales. Some places remain vibrant centers of faithful Christian witness. Yet, many of these have the form of faith in Christ without the attending power of the Holy Spirit. Saint David’s Cathedral is a magnificent statement of Welsh society's once central place of worship. I have been there several times. I am confident of its history of faithful service to Christ and the Great Commission. Yet, as in the rest of Britain, North America, and the West, there has been a weakening of the witness of the visible Church. Thus, we all pray for the revival and strengthening of Saint David’s and all the Christian communities in Wales (and the world). The nascent point I raise is familiar: you can have a chapel or a cathedral without having Christ. This is a fact we all know very well. So, I want to ask, “What is the place of—well, in a word—‘place?’ Does it even matter?”
In this short essay, I want to consider the idea of sacred space in worshiping Almighty God. However, I am not discussing architecture specifically. Instead, I want to emphasize the Christian importance of gathering in the name of God. Christian communities have always considered the concept of holy space an essential part of their worship. Rudolph Otto referred to "holy space" as a "category of interpretation and valuation." The concept of sacred assembly requires a sacred space, whether it's a forest clearing, the shore of Galilee, a secret cavern, a borrowed room, or a building specifically constructed to anchor the community's worship of God. We focus not on the "supra-rational" nature of "holy," as Otto described it, but rather on the practical inevitability of sacred assembly and the need for sacred space. We might think like this: "The advance of the Gospel invariably brings attention to the necessity for sacred assembly and, thus, holy (set apart) space for worshiping the Triune God. This reality, therefore, calls for a theology of place."
A place to gather is the necessary next step in a divine call for “sacred assembly." One crucial passage is from Joel: "Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD" (Joel 1:14, NIV). The mystical dialogue between heaven and earth happens in assembly. According to the biblical example and Gospel commandments, God is worshipped and gives us His Word with His purpose for living in a sacred assembly. Thus, “. . . Gatherings are called by the same name: qahal or, in the Greek, ekklesia, "the meeting," "the assembly."'[3] When the ancient Church assembled, like the New Covenant Church, they did so in a place. That place of sacred assembly became, like the altars of Abraham, a sacred place. This is not to admit any hallowing by a mere act (viz., the doctrine of Ex Opere Operato). Instead, by faith and the actual historical event, a place is set apart for God (whether home or hospital, cave or catacomb).[4]
And some scriptures direct where the people of God should assemble:
Exodus 20:24: "An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name, I will come to you, and I will bless you (NKJV)."
Psalm 84:1-2: "How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God."
Ephesians 2:21-22: "In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
Revelation 21:22: "But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple."
In considering the concept of holy space, it becomes apparent that a theology of dwelling is central to the larger Judeo-Christian tradition and, with revelatory fulfillment, to the Christian Church. As Greg Beale taught us, the Temple was a sign of God dwelling with us and a "cosmic" alert to the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Yet, the reality of God dwelling with man does not negate the call, "Come unto me" (Matthew 11:28). For we must go up to the Temple of God. The principle of continuity and discontinuity informs us at this point. Let's explore these concepts further.
Discontinuity
First, discontinuity is when some divine or divinely commanded expressions of redemption are fulfilled (not changed but fulfilled).
The Temple is fulfilled in Christ: "Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this Temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the Temple of his body" (John 2:19-21).
The Church is the Temple of the Lord as the Holy Spirit dwells in His people: "And what agreement hath the Temple of God with idols? For ye are the Temple of the living God: as God hath said, I will dwell among them, and walk there: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (2 Corinthians 6:14-18, 1599 Geneva Bible—I have used an older English version because the translation correctly provides the second-person plural declension, "ye," rather than "thou;" modern English no longer differentiates between you singular and plural, except with the Southern US colloquial, "y'all").
A host of other Scriptures anticipate and confirm that the New Covenant in Christ has made the Temple a spiritual dwelling place: "Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? Says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest" (Acts 7:49, NKJV)?
Finally, the most notable Scripture, taking its position at the very last in the processional, demonstrates discontinuity with the idea of a physical temple: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, NKJV).
And then, there is "continuity:" divine commands that continue even if in a new covenant expression (e.g., Passover and the Lord's Supper, Circumcision, and Baptism).
Continuity
From “ha erets” (the earth, land, promised land; see “אֶרֶץ”) in Genesis to the New Heavens and the New Earth in Revelation, the reader of Scripture cannot avoid the concept of place.[5] While the Lord has fulfilled the meaning of "God with us" through the miracle of Incarnation (Matthew 1:23), and the Church, the company of all of those who trust in Christ, comprise "the Temple" (1 Corinthians 3:16), there is a continuity in other ways. The people follow the example of the Lord setting apart space for divine services as He did for the Tabernacle (Exodus 27:9-19). Jesus taught in the synagogue (Luke 4:15-16) and at the Temple (Matthew 21:12-13). The people gathered in open fields, hillsides, and near the sea (Matthew 14:13-21). The disciples gathered to worship and wait on the Lord in the Upper Room (Acts 1:13-14). Paul preached in synagogues (Acts 13:5) and other public gathering places (Acts 17:17). Thus, a continuity of space is set apart and used to worship the Triune God (Acts 2:46-47).
The prophet Joel declares in Joel 1:14, "Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God and cry out to the LORD." Although we do not advocate the perpetuation of the Old Testament temple, the Bible offers continuity in spiritual application, also retaining the Biblical emphasis on "sacred space." We need not be mystical about speaking of sacred space or sacred time. We mean that physical place dedicated to God and for "sacred assembly," i.e., Christian worship. The pagan notions of a duality of material and spirit (in which the former is evil, and the latter is good) are crushed beneath the wholistic vision of the Creator’s concern for all things. Thus, we may speak of spiritual things within our Lebenswelt (German, "life-world," i.e., our experiential world). We may also speak of "holy" as both the subject of mysterium tremendum (awe-filled, ethereal, set apart, divine) and our human response to it (awe-inspiring, transformative).
The theology of the Temple underscores God's desire for a dwelling among His people. This abode of the invisible God was intended to exist within the city yet distinct from it. The architectural design of the meeting place between God and humanity reflects a proper theology: the eternal God's self-revelation while remaining present with His people. The famous architectural historian, Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), termed this concinnitas, where temple features are harmoniously interconnected ("pleasing on account of harmony and proportion"). Borrowing from Cicero's concern for rhetoric (and Cicero from Socrates), Alberti sought to reflect the attributes of God in Creation with architecture. Thus, each part was integral to the whole, much like the liturgical components: entrance, acknowledgment of God's presence, proclamation of His word, remembrance of the covenant mediated by Christ's sacrifice, and the dismissal, all united by the Gospel's golden thread. In this lies the enigmatic revelation of God amidst His concealment and humanity's salvation through His sacrifice. Thus, both liturgy and structure are within the community yet set apart. As Roger Scruton notes in "The Soul of the World," temple stones bear witness to the convergence of time and timelessness in sacred assembly.
In the early Church, believers gathered primarily in homes from the New Testament era to the fourth century. Now more than ever, we need the elegy of sacred assembly, and even more "as we see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:25, ESV). Philemon, a wealthy man mentioned in Paul's letter, hosted such an assembly in his spacious home, possibly including a dedicated chapel for worship. Archaeological evidence supports this arrangement. However, the presence of house churches doesn't negate the importance of a city temple, which became vital as apostles yielded to local pastors and house churches gave way to consecrated community meeting houses.
In the 21st century, the concept of holy space waned with the ascent of secularism, leading to blurred distinctions between sacred assemblies and other gatherings. Attempts to mimic secular venues eroded the unique nature of worship, and deconstructed liturgy led to the loss of holy space's distinct purpose. Chancels became stages. Ministers sub-contracted the conducting of divine services to music leaders. The Geneva gown (or other similar ministerial attire for this remarkably special occassion) was replaced by skinny jeans and a tee-shirt. It turns out that those who decry form as unnecessary have the strictest expectations for what one wears or how the sacred space is presented. Simple and reverent is, thus, replaced by a complex dance between an ever changing popular culture and a priestly cult of therapeturic religious celebrities. If you think I overstate the matter, try going to a church committed to “casual” gatherings in a coat and tie. If you can get out of the place without being judged (e.g., “You appear to be bound by the law, not free in the doctrine of grace”), you will have a better time of it than I have had.
Although the full impact of secularism is yet to be explored, it's evident that neglecting holy space hindered the Church's mission to bridge the gap between people and God. Conversely, cathedrals and churches in Britain and Europe suffered a similar fate, failing their mission due to diluted liturgy or abandonment, severing the connection between God's message and physical space.
The bottom line? One can recognize the importance of place, of holy space, without becoming bound by materialism. For God is a God of form and freedom, of the material and the spiritual, and of body and soul. We can give our best as unto the Lord in all things. And all things are subject to His Lordship.
No group in Christian history exempliefied this more than the French Protestants during the time of Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), i.e. the Edict of Fontainebleau, by French King Louis XIV.
Worship in the Woods
After the infamous Edict of Fontainebleau (1685), the French Protestants, given the derisive term “Huguenots” (a Gaulic appropriation of the Dutch to mean “the secret house people”) were forced to move from secret assemblies in homes-turned-sanctuaries, to assembling in forests, carrying the pulpit from their dedicated house of worship with them, akin to Israel fleeing with the Ark of the Covenant. In doing so, these persecuted people of God revealed that sacred assembly can occur in unconventional settings through dedicated time and space based on Scripture. Sacredness resides not solely in grand cathedrals but in God's presence and faithful proclamation of His word. This truth is evident in the architecture of Westminster Abbey or the simple design of a chapel on the plains of America. Such biblical truth continues in New Covenant fulfillment as God dwells through the power of the Holy Spirit in the believer's body, for the body is the Temple of the Lord. Sacred space and consecrated place are grounded in a theology of God with us and God in us through Jesus Christ our Lord in time and space, in our finite seasons of life, and in the "timelessness" (Eliot) of worship throughout eternity.
As Christ continues to build His Church, renewed attention to body and soul, edifice and liturgy, will likely resurface. As Jesus promised in Matthew 16:18 (ESV), "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Whether we follow the cycle from house worship to community structures or restore cathedral ruins, a revival of pure religion concerning sacred time and space is imperative for the resurgence of sacred assembly.
In this sense, you can hound believers out of dedicated sacred space, but because the Spirit resides in them, wherever they assemble will become the sanctuary of the living God. And the ordering of the synagogue will determine the arranging of space for the purpose of worship. Thus, I stood in a cell beneath an excuvated Roman era stadium in Durres, Albania. I went into a holding cell for wild beasts used to devour Christians. The Roman blood sport of killing Christians passed into a new time. And that cell that once represented the hatred of Christ became a chapel to worship the Lord Jesus. There in the stone animal stall I saw a stone table erected for a Communion Table. I saw a mosaic of the Lord in the boat with his disciples in a Galilean storm. The thing which was made to destroy Christianity became the very place where Christians gathered to worship the Lord Jesus Chrsit. This is how sacred space speaks to the world. God is here. Christ is risen. And that changes everything.
A Gentle Gesture of Profound Meaning
One of the most touching demonstrations of compassion and gospel witness I observed was during my tenure as pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga. The Women in the Church formed what could be described as an “altar guild,” which not only involved coordinating and arranging flowers for the Communion Table but also extended to a practice that beautifully illustrated the concepts of "sacred assembly" and "holy space."
Their mission included taking blossoms from those arrangements to members who were unable to attend services, effectively extending the sacred assembly beyond the church walls. Through this act, they conveyed a poignant message: "Although you couldn't join us in the congregation, we bring this creation of natural beauty—which stood amongst us as we worshipped—to you. It is a symbol of our shared worship and a reminder that your presence was missed."
This simple yet profound gesture resonated with the essence of holy space. It signified that the church, as a collective body, reaches out and embraces its absent members, affirming that they are still within the sanctuary of God's people, irrespective of the physical space. The flowers, a fragment of the church's collective worship, became a tangible connection, linking the homebound members to the sanctity of the communal worship experience. It was a testament to the fact that the holy space we create through worship can extend beyond the physical confines of a church and into the hearts and homes of believers.
Now more than ever, we need such a theology of Sacred Assembly—of the invisible God made visible by His word, of a place of worship that is in the community and yet apart from it, and a retelling of the gospel story in such a way that reverence and awe, wonder and beauty inspire us to make God the center of our lives, in liturgy and edifice, in other words: in body and soul. And we require this all the more "as we see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:25, ESV).
We should reorient our practice, whether in cave or cathedral, to this theological vision. It is neither this mountain nor another (John 4:19, 20) where we worship. But our Lord teaches that we must worship in “Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Spirit and truth worship is the key. So, when we worship anywhere on earth, the object of our worship transforms the common to the sacred, returning Creation and its resources to its highest good, which is worshiping the Creator. For we are moving inevitably to the ultimate fulfillment of this divine promise, as Revelation 21:3 (ESV) declares,
"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God."'
References
Adams, Edward. The Earliest Christian Meeting Places: Almost Exclusively Houses? Edinburgh: A&C Black, 2013.
Davies, John Colin. “The Originality of Cicero’s Philosophical Works.” Latomus 30, no. Fasc. 1 (1971): 105–19.
Davis, Stephen M. The French Huguenots and Wars of Religion: Three Centuries of Resistance for Freedom of Conscience. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021.
Dawn, Marva J. A Royal Waste of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999.
Eliot, T. S. Four Quartets. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2014. https://books.google.com/books?id=xzziAgAAQBAJ.
Elsted, Janet Elizabeth. “Time and Timelessness in The Prelude of William Wordsworth and Four Quartets of T. S. Eliot.” University of British Columbia, 1975. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0093438.
Evans, D. Simon. Review of Review of Rhigyfarch’s Life of St. David. The Basic Mid Twelfth-Century Latin Text with Introduction, Critical Apparatus and Translation, by J. W. James. Medium Ævum 37, no. 2 (1968): 183–85. https://doi.org/10.2307/43627433.
Evans, J. Wyn, and Jonathan M. Wooding, eds. “The Life of Saint David.” In St David of Wales: Cult, Church and Nation. Suffolk, England, UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2007. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/st-david-of-wales/life-of-st-david/50E5F79607739671E9C60BD68AB8E916.
Gish, Nancy K. Time in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot: A Study in Structure and Theme. Springer, 1981.
Hamilton, Sarah, and Andrew Spicer. “Defining the Holy: The Delineation of Sacred Space.” In Defining the Holy. Routledge, 2006.
Kennedy, D. James. Evangelism Explosion. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1996.
Lathrop, Gordon W., and Timothy J. Wengert. Christian Assembly: Marks of the Church in a Pluralistic Age. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004.
McKim, Donald K., and David F. Wright. Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith. Westminster John Knox Press, 1992.
Millham, Matthew. “Army Holds Final Retreat Ceremony in Heidelberg.” Stars and Stripes, September 9, 2013. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/army-holds-final-retreat-ceremony-in-heidelberg-1.migrated.
Otto, R. The Idea of the Holy. OUP USA, 1958.
Robertson, O. Palmer. The Christ of the Covenants. Philipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1980.
Rotolo, Justin Nortey and Michael. “How the Pandemic Has Affected Attendance at U.S. Religious Services.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project (blog), March 28, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/03/28/how-the-pandemic-has-affected-attendance-at-u-s-religious-services/.
Scruton, Roger. The Soul of the World. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Tavernor, Robert. On Alberti and the Art of Building. Yale University Press, 1998.
Tavernor, Robert William. “Concinnitas in the Architectural Theory and Practice of Leon Battista Alberti.,” November 12, 1985. http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/239042.
Westphal, Charles. “The Marks of the Church*.” The Ecumenical Review 12, no. 2 (1960): 173–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.1960.tb00758.x.
Wooding, Jonathan M. “1 The Figure of David.” Edited by J. Wyn Evans, Jonathan M. Wooding, Bernard Tanguy, Daniel Huws, David R. Howlett, Fred Cowley, Glanmor Williams, et al. St David of Wales: Cult, Church and Nation. Suffolk, England, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781846155963-005.
Endnotes
[1] See, e.g., J. Wyn Evans and Jonathan M. Wooding, eds., “The Life of Saint David,” in St David of Wales: Cult, Church, and Nation (Suffolk, England, UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2007); and, Jonathan M. Wooding, “1 The Figure of David,” ed. J. Wyn Evans et al., St David of Wales: Cult, Church and Nation (Suffolk, England, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2007), https://doi.org/10.1515/9781846155963-005.
[2] “In reply to the "Articles of the Faculty of Paris" (1543), Calvin wrote, ‘We all confess that there has been a universal Church ever since the beginning of the world and that it must continue until the end. The question is, what are the outward signs by which we can discern it? In our conviction, it is the Word of God that marks the Church.’” From Charles Westphal, “The Marks of the Church*,” The Ecumenical Review 12, no. 2 (1960): 173–82, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.1960.tb00758.x.
[3] Gordon W. Lathrop and Timothy J. Wengert, Christian Assembly: Marks of the Church in a Pluralistic Age (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004), 5.
[4] For more on Ex Opere Operato, see John E. Burkhart, “Ex Opere Operato.” In Encyclopedia of the Reformed Faith, 130–31. Louisville, KY; Edinburgh: Westminster/John Knox Press; Saint Andrew Press, 1992.
[5] Thomas, Robert L. אֶרֶץ erets, New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc., 1998, no. 776.