American Sanctuary


Book Description

This volume examines a diverse set of spaces and buildings seen through the lens of popular practice and belief to shed light on the complexities of sacred space in America. Contributors explore how dedication sermons document shifting understandings of the meetinghouse in early 19th-century Connecticut; the changes in evangelical church architecture during the same century and what that tells us about evangelical religious life; the impact of contemporary issues on Catholic church architecture; the impact of globalization on the construction of traditional sacred spaces; the urban practice of Jewish space; nature worship and Central Park in New York; the mezuzah and domestic sacred space; and, finally, the spiritual aspects of African American yard art.




Masonic Temples


Book Description

In Masonic Temples, William D. Moore introduces readers to the structures American Freemasons erected over the sixty-year period from 1870 to 1930, when these temples became a ubiquitous feature of the American landscape. As representations of King Solomon’s temple in ancient Jerusalem erected in almost every American town and city, Masonic temples provided specially designed spaces for the enactment of this influential fraternity’s secret rituals. Using New York State as a case study, Moore not only analyzes the design and construction of Masonic structures and provides their historical context, but he also links the temples to American concepts of masculinity during this period of profound economic and social transformation. By examining edifices previously overlooked by architectural and social historians, Moore decodes the design and social function of Masonic architecture and offers compelling new insights into the construction of American masculinity. Four distinct sets of Masonic ritual spaces—the Masonic lodge room, the armory and drill room of the Knights Templar, the Scottish Rite Cathedral, and the Shriners’ mosque – form the central focus of this volume. Moore argues that these spaces and their accompanying ceremonies communicated four alternative masculine archetypes to American Freemasons—the heroic artisan, the holy warrior, the adept or wise man, and the frivolous jester or fool. Although not a Freemason, Moore draws from his experience as director of the Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library in New York City, where heutilized sources previously inaccessible to scholars. His work should prove valuable to readers with interests in vernacular architecture, material culture, American studies, architectural and social history, Freemasonry, and voluntary associations.




Temples for a Modern God


Book Description

After World War II, Americans constructed an unprecedented number of synagogues, churches, cathedrals, chapels, and other structures. The book is one of the first major studies of American religious architecture in the postwar period, and it reveals the diverse and complicated set of issues that emerged just as one of the nation's biggest building booms unfolded. Price argues that the resulting structures, as often mocked as loved, were physical embodiments of an important time in American religious history.




The American Cyclopaedia


Book Description




Impostors in the Temple


Book Description

"Impostors in the Temple is a hard-hitting, eye-opening book about the decaying moral and intellectual state of American universities and colleges today--about why things have gone so wrong, and what we can do to set them right." "The university is the intellectual engine of America. It is here future leaders are trained, national policy is framed, and standards for our huge educational infrastructure are established. Yet today, despite the staggering costs of a college education, our institutions are not making the grade. The fault lies not with the students, who are brighter than ever, but with the faculties, administrations, and trustees into whose hands we deliver our best young minds." "Martin Anderson--domestic policy adviser to two presidents and himself a member of the academic establishment for over three decades--takes American academics to task in this stirring book, sure to be hailed for its scope and clarity. Cutting through political excuses that have gone awry, Anderson addresses the simpler, unuttered truths: how irrelevant the work of our intellectals has become; how corrupt practices are rampant in our universities; how academic elitism has destroyed academic integrity; how too many of our professors are not qualified to teach; how too often it is not professors but students who are relegated to do the teaching; how trustees and administrators are shunning responsibility and looking the other way; and how, by accepting the status quo, Americans are mortgaging their children's educational futures." "In clear, vivid prose, Anderson names names, marshals statistics, turns conventional wisdom on its ear, and makes us understand how serious things have become. More important, he offers us dramatic solutions." "As provocative as Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind and Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education, Martin Anderson's Impostors in the Temple is sure to raise hackles, spur debate, and fire our imaginations on how to revitalize an American community that processes millions of our young at so steep a cost."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved




Tantric Temples


Book Description

"A history of tantra in Java and its origin and practice and how it has influenced and interacted with Tibetan Tantra, Hindu mysticism and Sufi Islam and Western sexual magical practices. Illustrated with full color photos of old and newly excavated and uncovered temples, along with with statues and iconography dedicated to practices in shrines, cemeteries and secret schools."--Publisher's description.




Hindu Temples in North America


Book Description







American Temples


Book Description

A coffee table book of all of the temples completed in the United States. It includes photos from Scott Jarvie, facts, and personal experiences on the temples of the United States.




Presidential Temples


Book Description

This book explores the visual and material cultures of presidential commemoration--memorials and monuments, libraries and archives--and the problematic ways in which presidents themselves have largely taken over their own commemoration. The author sees these various commemorative sites as playing a key role in the construction of our collective political and cultural self-images and as another sign of our preoccupation with celebrity culture. Ultimately, he contends, these presidential temples reflect not only our civil religion but also the extraordinary expansion of executive authority--and presidential self-commemoration--since FDR.