(Finally done with the semester, as of... 2:50ish this afternoon. I'm bushed now, but, you know.... super fortunate that I happen to have 7,250 words right here hot n' fresh. I'll just share one paper; one paper sounds good. This one is called, "what is a temple?")
The topic is the temple, the focus, what that means. Simply put, a temple is a building of worship, the place where other objects of religious reference are found, an especially sacred place for being the dwelling place of a god or gods. Beyond that, the word is fluid, and is used in different contexts when referring to different cultures: each culture has its own ideas of what constitutes religion, far less its highest edifice, so naming any given building as a temple or not is tricky going in blind. That is not to say that temples don’t generally follow basic patterns—in terms of layout, a few features are near-universal, which, while their presence doesn’t automatically make a building a temple neither their absence a building not, are all at least helpful to understand the concept of a temple and understand its place within religion and within society.
In order to define a temple, then, we’re going to need to go into typologies, broad categorization based off of commonalities we see in patterns. Briefly, the few commonalities within patterns we’re going to be touching on here are: with the temple as a sacred place, it is a place set apart for the pure to enter, and there must be some form of filtration to distinguish the common man from the pure. Filtration can take place through walls and doors, liminal spaces separating degrees of the sacred, on a physical level; on a ritual level the temple-goer must be initiated to give correct responses in passing between spaces. Ritual is of course another pattern seen in temple worship, but the means of ritual tend to be very similar between cultures as well, which we will go over. Altars are universal symbols of temple worship as well, places of offering or sacrifice. They are as good a place to begin as any.
The altar’s location within a temple is variable, defined by the broader purpose that the temple had specifically in society; however, altar worship is so pervasive to temple worship that the altar is a symbol of the temple itself. Altars represent sacrifice, even if the altar isn’t a place for ritual sacrifice itself per se. The form sacrifice can take in these contexts is rather a form of contrition: altars are places to kneel, a submission of will.
It is essential to recognize, when dealing with the topic of the temple, that with their separate nature comes a tiered nature—not literally tiered (though that’s certainly present in pyramid temples and ziggurats) but that the separation between profane and sacred takes place in stages. Divine appearance (hierophany) manifest in cult images- statues etc. which are housed in the temple. The world is full of divinity. Hierophany is defined as the divine manifestation of the sacred in mortal space, and the settings of hierophanies themselves become sacred, with the profane world distant and the space gradually gaining more sacredness the closer to the site of the hierophany one gets. The separation of sacred space is marked by partitions, and space of an even more sacred nature is guarded, allowing only the prepared to delve further into deeper levels of the sacred.
Starting from the outside, proceeding from most profane to most sacred: The buildings themselves are walled off from the outside world, taking place for the most part within larger grounds, “temenos” in Greek; these are still sacred but to a lesser degree. Within the temple there are certain areas more restricted than others, usually with a “holy of holies” at the back (when dealing with a central-access plan temple;) either way this sanctum sanctorum is extremely restricted, such as with ancient Israelite temples where only one priest can enter all year, and only then on the most holy of holy days.
The worship of a temple must take place in a sphere beyond the category of worship in a church or synagogue- places of commonplace worship may include ritual and rites as well, but the worship of a temple consists of specific worship of a higher and more sacred level, deeper and more secretive rites, initiating the partaker into the inner cult, making the participant an initiate of the Mysteries. These temple rites could take any number of forms, but certain patterns are universally followed, with certain symbolism universally observed.
The initiatory aspects of temple worship mark another commonality between patterns of temple worship: liminality. Temple worship usually takes place within the context of marriages, coronations, or funerary rites: transitions from one state to another. These transitory times and places affirm themselves much in temple symbolism- cherubim, the famed threshold guardians of Hebrew belief, are themselves liminal creatures, usually depicted symbolically with mixed animal attributes.
Ritual is a common element of all worship, but the rituals in temples frequently relate to rites, and those frequently in the form of a dramatic presentation, a representation of the creation of the world. Sacred place, then, is designed to set apart sacred time. In temple drama, the history of the world is presented: the creation of the earth is collapsed into the present, and to its destruction; death and birth are collapsed into one, signifying the resurrection of the believers as an aspect of the temple drama itself and indexing the initiate’s own place within the cosmic order.
his is where we get into the deeper commonalities of typology—which are of course just commonalities, no one system of temple rite observes all symbols/rituals common between patterns. There are many aspects of temples and their meaning, which are also instructive to consider but which we can’t delve into beyond listing them. Temples, after all, can hold many symbols within them, symbolic of the cosmos itself, and there are many symbols of temples and their places themselves within the cosmos, and all the symbols are intertwined. Briefly: water represents creation, but creation is also in a sense chaos. Rivers, flowing water, flow from mountains. Mountains represent temples, but also feature other representations of temples, such as caves. The mountain is the place highest to the heavens, still part of earth- a liminal area itself, a connection between worlds, known as an axis mundi. Trees also represent the axis mundi, and world trees are attested in mythology worldwide. Trees are fed by water, so we can see how each symbol connects to each other. There are other aspects of temple typology, similarly entwined with other aspects, that I’m leaving out (perhaps wisely?)
No one culture attests all common temple symbols, but all feature most. The symbolic import of temples is impossible to overstate, as symbols that began in temple contexts trickled into everyday society and scattered throughout the globe. Each temple ritual features patterns in common with others, probably through this and other complex media. As far as can be determined, regarding temple ritual, of course- sacred rites and rituals go unrecorded frequently, so we must reconstruct a lot of what is known based on filling the gaps in with what is known from other cultures, the way that the temple ritual fits into society, and whom the temple services, among other things.
In conclusion, we’ll reflect on the broadest aspects of typology which we’ve considered. Temple refers to buildings of a most sacred religious nature- the temenos or temple complex is the greater structure in which the smaller temple itself holds setting. Sacred space is separated, by degrees, from profane. Passing through and delving deeper into the sacred space, one degree of initiation to another, a participant in temple worship passes through liminal space, transitioning symbolically from life to death to resurrection. Transition in a broader sense is the purpose of temple rituals as well; it is a place where transitional rituals are performed- sacrifice, marriage rites, coronations. The innermost part of the temple is the most sacred and most exclusive area- the deepest mysteries are available only to most elite or most worthy. Temples hold setting for the truest form of the highest order of worship- the making of covenants. Temples worldwide hold common symbols, entwined in complex ways.
We can see from just this recapitulation that the subject of a temple, while simple at first glance, contains an inexhaustible array of manifestations, interacting in complex and highly symbolic ways. In the end, though, the temple remains perhaps the simplest edifice of all: that of man retreating from mundane life to hold communion with the divine.
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