Fourteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The philosophical study of space and place offers a powerful lens for viewing the role of spirituality in religion. Within this field, the work of American philosopher Edward S. Casey (1939-) stands out by providing a phenomenological framework to explore and specify the unique religious and spiritual experience of place – that is, “its power to direct and stabilize us, to memorialize and identify us, to tell us who and what we are in terms of where we are (as well as where we are not).” For Casey: “To be in the world, to be situated at all, is to be in place” (Casey 1993). How does such a view influence, not only our understanding of religious space and place but also our understanding of God and the spiritual practice of place? This paper explores several themes put forth by Casey that speak to the phenomenal spatial experience of spirituality – namely that place is embodied, that place gathers, and that place is an event or process rooted in openness and movement.