The Secret Language of Sacred Spaces: Decoding Churches, Cathedrals, Temples, Mosques and Other Places of Worship Around the World Hardcover – October 15, 2013

I first saw a copy of this while waiting for an appointment at my local bank! It was one of 5 or 6 books in a waiting area and caught my eye. Just browsing through it for 10 minutes was enough for me to order a copy. The many drawings, illustrations, photographs, and insightful narrative make clear how the arrangement and design of interior space can affect us so significantly.

Incredibly enjoyable, easy-to-read background text accompanied the stunning photographs of historically-significant religious places. Captured my interest in learning more about the religious buildings of various faiths, such as Hagia Sophia, Angkor Wat, Spanish Synagogue (Prague), Machu Picchu, Taj Mahal (mausoleum and afterlife), Grand Mosque (Mecca), Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem), La Mezquita (Cordoba), as well as Indian and East Asian religious architecture.

I purchased the book for a woman to give her husband for Christmas. He was thrilled with the gift, but passed away before he could read it.

this book bring you right into the greatreligious buildings and structures in the world today. a great gift idea for anyone studying The Sacred!!

gift for my daughter

I was disappointed on several levels with this book. I found it via the Folio Society's website, and my respect for them suffered as a result. They produce excellent books, and I'm happy to have about a dozen in my library, but someone at Folio was asleep at the switch when they advertised this text on their site. It's a coffee-table book, and I know now why that term is dismissive. This book is long on flash (it has some lovely photos) and short on content. Fortunately, those lovely photos take up about half of the 210 pages, because the text is numbingly uninspired. The title is quite misleading. There may well be a "secret" language of the architecture of churches, temples, mosques, etc, but this book does not deliver it. I bought this expecting an analysis and description of how the architecture of these religious buildings reflects some of the theological ideas of the religion, and there is some of that. It's not absent, but it amounts to little more than 25% of the text (and I'm being generous, I think). Instead one gets an unending string of loosely connected facts of history (names, dates, sites, architectural nomenclature in the language of the religion's adherents), seasoned ever so lightly with a few comments that can be read as a bit of "decoding" of the architecture of these sacred buildings. Overall, however, the dominant impression is of an utterly boring travelogue that gives you a vague impression of having been told something, but you're hard pressed to say what it was. I have taught writing for decades, and this book is weakly cohesive and quite incoherent. It never delivers on the thesis implied in the title. I wish I had my $28 back.

This book is a beautiful artifact, elegantly designed with stunning photographs; and a profound thesis on the nature of humanity's need to create sacred spaces - in all times and all cultures, from the Neolithic to the present day. Jon Cannon is a highly-regarded architectural historian, cultural commentator and polymath who brings observation and experience from his extensive travels to this delightful and important book.

Beautiful book.

bought as a present