Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces

By Jon Pahl

Christian historian Sidney Mead has observed: ""In America space has played the part that time has played in older cultures of the world."" In Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces, Jon Pahl examines this provocative statement in conversation with what he calls the ""spatial character"" of American theology. He argues that places are always imaginatively constructed by the human beings who inhabit them. Sometimes this spatial theology works to our benefit; other times it poses spiritual risks. What happens when our banal ""clothing of the sacred"" violates our genuine need for comfort and intimacy? Or when we remember that the fleeting pleasures of a shopping trip or a Disneyland escape are designed to fill someone else's pocket rather than the spiritual emptiness in our own hearts? Pahl develops several ways to ""clothe the divine from within the Christian tradition."" He introduces a theology of place that reveals aspects of God's character through biblical metaphors drawn from physical spaces, such as the true vine, the rock, and the living water. Accessible and thought provoking, this enlightening book provides a better grasp of our particularly American way of lending religious significance to spaces of all kinds.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 160608397X
• ISBN13: 9781606083970
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Best book on space and meaning

The author takes the reader on a tour of the Mall of America, Disney World, and the suburban home and shows how each of these places communicate a whole world of desire. Of course, these places provide fun, entertainment, and comfort. Yet, these places also provide a different kind of world than say, the world depicted in the most grace filled texts of grace. So how do we reconcile what these very worldly places communicate and a faith filled, theological understanding of the Kingdom of God? This book is rare in that it is deeply theological and at the same time highly accessible and personal. Pahl does serious research but it is based on lived experience (you go with his family to the Mall of America). Ever wonder why malls make you "want to buy" or give you a headache or make you think really hard as to where you parked your car? Or how about this, how is the desire the Kingdom of Disney provokes different, strategically different, than the Kingdom of God? Read the book. Perfect for your own reading, or study it as part of a book club, or get your adult education church group to take a look. You'll learn.