Sacred Spaces: Fuller Co-hosts Jewish-Evangelical Dialogue

Protestant and Jewish perspectives shared on architecture and the sacred :: 05/15/12

Fuller Seminary partnered with the Board of Rabbis of Southern California to host a seminar, Sacred Spaces, on Thursday, May 10, at Temple Judea in Tarzana, California. The event—part of a Jewish-Evangelical dialogue series sponsored by Fuller and the Board of Rabbis—drew clergy, professionals, students, and others interested in sacred art and architecture, using the newly built Temple Judea as a springboard for discussion about Protestant and Jewish perspectives on the sacredness of space.

“In this increasingly secular world in which we live,” said Fuller President Richard J. Mouw, “I can’t think of a better conversation than this one, about entering into the presence of God.” Rabbi Mark S. Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, called the sacred space discussion a “dream come true” and an indicator of how the partnership between the Board of Rabbis and Fuller has evolved over the nine years they have been meeting.

Susie Coliver, principal architect on the Temple Judea project, began the discussion with a presentation on designing sacred spaces. “There is no one prescribed way of building a sanctuary—they come in all shapes and sizes,” Coliver said. During the design process for Temple Judea, the senior rabbi expressed his desire that the entire campus be a sacred space, rather than only the sanctuary. Coliver noted that in Jewish tradition, wrapping is a way of honoring the sacred—the Torah scrolls are wrapped in cloth, as is the special challah bread for the Sabbath, and during prayer worshippers wrap themselves in shawls. So, all around Temple Judea there are metal screens with Hebrew letters punched out of them so the sunlight can shine through, symbolizing that the campus is “wrapped” as a sacred space.

After a tour of Temple Judea’s campus, as well as small group discussions over lunch, the main presentation commenced. Fuller Professor of Theology and Culture William Dyrness presented the Protestant view on sacred space, which he joked was a difficult assignment because “we really don’t believe in sacred space.” Dyrness explained how many centuries ago, in the ancient Eastern Orthodox church, icons defined sacred space and later, in the medieval period, the sacred was redefined by relics instead of icons. After the Reformation, however, theologian John Calvin would redefine it again, arguing that God is made present through the preaching of the Word, and that all creation is a theater for the glory of God.

Influenced by Calvin, Protestants no longer viewed God as limited to a special place, but believed every place is potentially sacred. “We can pray anywhere,” said Dyrness, “and space can become hallowed during the time it is used for prayer or proclamation of the Word.” He also discussed the Protestant imagination, which is iconoclastic—meaning it is afraid of anything distracting the mind from God, and inward—encouraging mental picturing of a personal spirituality.
 

Joshua Holo, dean of the Los Angeles Campus and Associate Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, presented a Jewish perspective on sacred space. “While Judaism does promote a disembodied notion of God,” Holo said, “Jewish sanctity has a history of being embodied.” He pointed out the tremendous effort the Hebrews made in building the temple, as recorded in the Bible, and he noted that it is an ancient Jewish idea to believe a fixed space should be the center of the universe.

The diaspora and the destruction of the temple deprived the Jewish people of their “center of the universe,” and they had to accommodate and redefine their ideas of the sacred, just as many Christians did after the Reformation. This “re-imagining of Judaism without a center,” Holo said, led to rabbinic Judaism, which focuses on the teachings of the Torah. Further, he remarked, “The constitution of a people is in itself covenantal and sacred.” The synagogue is the place where that people congregates. “One cannot appreciate Jewish spirituality without realizing it is essentially communal.”

“The synagogue,” Holo concluded, “is the Jewish negotiation of the transcendent and the immanent, the fixed and the movable.”

A time for questions and answers followed the presentations, and a Sacred Spaces: Part 2 discussion is anticipated for the fall, this time at a Christian place of worship.

Above photo: (From left) Susie Coliver, William Dyrness, and Joshua Holo answering questions after their presentations.