This stunning collection of panoramic photographs of sacred spaces—old missions, churches, cathedrals, synagogues, mosques, and temples—crosses barriers as it crosses the United States. A stunning display, it is aptly named. Look into the photographs and that sense of liminality – being in two places at once – becomes a visceral, felt experience.
The book began as the brainchild of Thomas Schiff and James Buchanan. Schiff took the photographs over several years. Buchanan wrote the essay on liminality to go with the photos. As previous professor at Xavier University and Executive Director of the Brueggeman Center for Dialogue, a center dedicated to interfaith dialogue, Buchanan knows about liminality. In the essay he proposes that ritual leads to liminality which leads to transcendence. He proposes that the sacred spaces of the interfaith places of worship are meant to disorient, dislocate, and overwhelm us.
And overwhelm us, they do. The photographs in this book bring that sense of being here, but not here. It is easy to feel the sacred in them, to feel the overwhelm, to feel the liminality. Schiff has captured this transcendence in his panoramic photographs. Looking into them, I felt that shift, like the sacred could lift off the pages, through the thousands of rituals, and transport me to some other realm.
Sacred spaces are a topic close to my heart. Having been raised in the Serbian Orthodox Church in Butte, Montana, I have often felt a sense of communing with the spirits that have passed through there. I feel this same sense of knowing when I look at Schiff’s photographs. Though I’ve never been to any of the places in the book, the photographs make them seem familiar. They feel like home and reach straight to my heart.
Sacred Spaces: Experiencing Liminality is a beautiful, generous, and a very touching book. In the spirit of that generosity, 100 percent of the profits are donated to local nonprofit organizations in the Cincinnati area.
Order here: Sacred Spaces: Experiencing Liminality
What a beautifully written review. It made me so curious to look inside this book.
Thank you, Jan!