Sacred Spaces and Rituals: Exploring the Significance of the Christian Church and Its Beliefs

Running head: CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Christian Church
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Introduction
The places, spaces and rituals are very much sacred to human beings within the church.
This is why people respect the church so much, both from inside and outside. The sacred space is
a place that is completely different from other places and it is revered through everywhere. The
word ‘sacred’ is very much complicated from different aspects (Grigoriadis, 2018: p. 88). There
are some things that are beyond the natural experience of all human beings. Therefore, it would
be highly important that these things will have to express somehow or in some different manners.
The actual dictionary meaning of sacred is something that is not profane or secular. The
Churches in the states have been given the ultimate respect and reverence since God resides in
the church. This is why from an inside perspective it can be said that believers of faith and
religion always see church as a building where they can open up their mind, confess their guilt,
desire for their wishes to come true and many more. The Catholic Christians have always given
much time to the adoring of their sacred space. The outsiders are fascinated by the great domes
of architecture that are of immense significance (Grigoriadis, 2018: p. 67).
Places
The church that has to be mentioned here is Church of South India i.e. situated at
Tranquebar in South India. The concepts of space, rituals and place are so very important in this
scenario. The church mentioned here is one of the most significant churches in South India. It is
in the state of Tamil Nadu in India (Lefebvre, H., & Nicholson-Smith, 1991: p. 85). It is a
Protestant church and it was set up in the year 1947. Many religious rituals take place in this
church and the most prominent of these is Christmas without any doubt.

2CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Durkheim has explored the disposition of ancient societies about their stance regarding
religion. The beliefs and values within the society are also very crucial in this scenario.
Therefore, the utility of ethnographic method has to be incorporated in this scenario. Durkheim
has also expressed his view that there are different forms of correspondent reactions between the
sacred and profane but the desire of human beings is to attain greater spiritual satisfaction from
the internal perspectives.
Spaces
According to believers of religion, nature is probably the purest thing in the universe. So,
everyone has to understand the different dimensions of explaining this issue from both
perspectives. The sacred spaces, places and ritual are very much evident from both the insider
and outsiders’ perspectives. However, both these perspectives are not at all similar from different
aspects. The insiders view it from the concept of faith, belief and other religious beliefs.
Religious people always have a belief that nature is not only just ‘natural’ but it has a deep
routed significance related to religion or church. Spiritual people have gone on to discover
several things from religious perspectives since the term ‘sacred’ has different undertones (Bell,
1997: p. 45). Religious people or insiders are of the opinion that this world has a proper structure
and it is governed by God.
Rituals
The creation of the world is deeply relevant to understand that divinity is all around the
world and insiders of the church should abide by the sacred spaces and rituals (Bell, 1997: p. 44).
The insiders of the church have explained that cosmic religion and divine faith are central to the
sacredness of the church from several aspects. It will be quite difficult for outsiders to have a