Spaces for the Sacred: Place, Memory, and Identity » (New Edition)

Philip Sheldrake is vice-principal and academic director of Sarum College, Salisbury, and honorary professor at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and visiting professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of several books, including Spirituality and History.

Sheldrake (theology, U. of Notre Dame) suggests, from a Christian perspective, was that one can think about the spirituality of place. Defining place as a human construct, he explores how Christianity shifted the loci of the sacred away from geography towards people and examines where that has left the spirituality of place for modern thinkers. He finds that place still plays an important role, as exemplified by the importance of the imaginary place in the monastic tradition and the impulse of Christian mysticism towards themes of journey and departure. He then examines how we can construct a positive view of place for life in the modern city. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Fergus Kerr

'To be a person,' Philip Sheldrake tells us, quoting the philosopher Heidegger, is literally to 'be there,' Dasein, thus to be in a particular place. Drawing on a wide range of writers, from Duns Scotus to Simon Schama, as well as on poetry and his memories of his own childhood in Dorset, Sheldrake offers a rich and original way of meditating on the importance of place and places in our lives.