Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity;["." Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 16 July 2020.] is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a "relic" that is Veneration and Blessing), or places ("Sacred site").
French Sociology Émile Durkheim considered the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane to be the central characteristic of religion: "religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden."[Durkheim, Émile. 1915. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. London: George Allen & Unwin. .] In Durkheim's theory, the sacred represents the interests of the group, especially unity, which are embodied in sacred group symbols, or using team work to help get out of trouble. The profane, on the other hand, involve mundane individual concerns.
Etymology
The word
sacred descends from the
Latin , referring to that which is 'Consecration, dedicated' or 'purified' to the gods or anything in their power, as well as to sacerdotes.[Stormonth, James, and Philip Henry Phelp, eds. 1895. "Sacred." In A Dictionary of the English Language. Blackwood & sons p. 883.] Latin sacer is itself from Proto-Indo-European "sacred, ceremony, ritual".
Holy
Although the terms
sacred and
holy are similar in meaning, and they are sometimes used interchangeably, they carry subtle differences.
[" Difference Between Sacred and Holy ." Difference Between. 26 September 2013.] Holiness is generally used in relation to people and relationships, whereas
sacredness is used in relation to objects, places, or happenings.
[McCann, Catherine. 2008. New Paths Toward the Sacred Thus. Paulist Press. .] For example, a saint may be considered as holy but not necessarily sacred. Nonetheless, some things can be both holy and sacred, such as the
Holy Bible.
[
]
Although sacred and holy denote something or someone set apart to the worship of God and therefore, worthy of respect and sometimes veneration, holy (the stronger word) implies an inherent or essential character.["Sacred",
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 5th ed., p. 875 ] Holiness originates in God and is communicated to things, places, times, and persons engaged in His Service. Thus, Thomas Aquinas defines holiness as that virtue by which a man's mind applies itself and all its acts to God; he ranks it among the infused moral , and identifies it with the virtue of religion. However, whereas religion is the virtue whereby one offers God due service in the things which pertain to the Divine service, holiness is the virtue by which one makes all one's acts subservient to God. Thus, holiness or sanctity is the outcome of sanctification, that Divine act by which God freely justifies a person and by which He has claimed them for His own.[Hugh Pope. 1910. " Holiness ." ]The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 20 November 2016.
Etymology of 'holy'
The English word
holy dates back to the
Proto-Germanic word
from around 500 BCE, an adjective derived from ('whole'), which was used to mean 'uninjured, sound, healthy, entire, complete'.
In non-specialist contexts, the term
holy refers to someone or something that is associated with a
Divine grace, such as
Holy water used for
baptism.
Transitions
The concept of things being made or associated with the sacred is widespread among
, making people, places, and objects revered, set apart for special use or purpose, or transferred to the sacred sphere. Words for this include
hallow,
sanctify, and
consecrate, which can be contrasted with
desecration and
deconsecration. These terms are used in various ways by different groups.
Sanctification and consecration come from the Latin Sanctus (to set apart for special use or purpose, make holy or sacred)
Christianity
The verb form 'to hallow' is archaic in English, and does not appear other than in the quoted text in the Lord's Prayer in the New Testament.
[ Webster's Collegiate Dictionary entry for hallowed][ and ] The noun form
hallow, as used in
Hallowtide, is a synonym of the word
saint.
In the various branches of Christianity the details differ. Sanctification in Christianity usually refers to a person becoming holy,[Justo L. González, Essential Theological Terms, Westminster John Knox Press, US, 2005, p. 155] while consecration in Christianity may include setting apart a person, building, or object, for God. Among some Christian denominations there is a complementary service of "deconsecration", to remove something consecrated of its sacred character in preparation for either demolition or sale for secular use.
Judaism
In
rabbinic Judaism sanctification means sanctifying God's name by works of mercy and
martyrdom, while desecration of God's name means committing
sin.
This is based on the Jewish concept of God, whose holiness is pure goodness and is transmissible by sanctifying people and things.
Islam
In
Islam, sanctification is termed as
tazkiah, other similarly used words to the term are
Islah-i qalb (reform of the heart),
Ihsan (beautification),
taharat (purification),
Ikhlas (purity),
qalb-is-salim (pure/safe/undamaged heart).
Tasawuf (Sufism), basically an ideology rather than a term, is mostly misinterpreted as the idea of sanctification in Islam and it is used to pray about
, especially among Sufis, in whom it is common to say "that God sanctifies his secret" ("qaddasa Llahou Sirruhu"), and that the Saint is alive or dead.
[Juan Eduardo Campo, Encyclopedia of Islam, Infobase Publishing, US, 2009, p. 598]
Buddhism
Images of the Buddha and
are ceremonially consecrated in a broad range of Buddhist rituals that vary depending on the Buddhist traditions. Buddhābhiseka is a
Pali and
Sanskrit term referring to these consecration rituals.
Mormonism
Mormonism is replete with consecration doctrine, primarily Christ's title of "The Anointed One" signifying his official, authorized and unique role as the savior of mankind from sin and death, and secondarily each individual's opportunity and ultimate responsibility to accept Jesus' will for their life and consecrate themselves to living thereby wholeheartedly. Book of Mormon examples include "sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God" (Heleman 3:35) and "come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption, ... and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved" (Omni 1:26).
Hinduism
In most
around the world,
Kumbhabhishekam, or the temple's consecration ceremony, is done once every 12 years. It is usually done to purify the temple after a
renovation or simply done to renew the purity of the temple. Hindus celebrate this event on the consecration date as the witnessing gives a good soul a thousand "punya", or
good karma.
Jainism
Panch Kalyanaka Pratishtha Mahotsava is a traditional
Jain ceremony that consecrates one or more Jain
Tirthankara with celebration of
Panch Kalyanaka (five auspicious events). The ceremony is generally held when a new Jain temple is erected or new idols are installed in temples.
[Jaini, Padmanabh S. (1998) 1979, The Jaina Path of Purification, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, ] The consecration must be supervised by a religious authority, an
Acharya or a
Bhattaraka or a scholar authorized by them.
In academia
Hierology
Hierology (
Greek language: ιερος,
hieros, 'sacred or 'holy', +
-logy) is the study of
Religious text or
Folklore.
[" hierology ." Dictionary.com.][" hierology." Oxford Dictionary Online.] The concept and the term were developed in 2002 by
art-historian and
Byzantinism Alexei Lidov.
[A. Lidov. "Hierotopy. The creation of sacred spaces as a form of creativity and subject of cultural history" in Hierotopy. Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Medieval Russia, ed. A.Lidov, Moscow: Progress-Tradition, 2006, pp. 32–58]
History of religions
Analysing the
dialectic of the sacred,
Mircea Eliade outlines that religion should not be interpreted only as "belief in deities", but as "experience of the sacred."
[Altizer, Thomas J. J. 1968. Mircea Eliade and the Dialectic of the Sacred. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. .] The sacred is presented in relation to the profane;
[Eliade, Mircea. 1987. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, translated by W. R. Trask. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. .] the relation between the sacred and the profane is not of opposition, but of complementarity, as the profane is viewed as a
hierophany.
[Iţu, Mircia. 2006. Mircea Eliade. Bucharest: Editura Fundaţiei România de Mâine. . p. 35.]
Sociology
French
Sociology Émile Durkheim considered the
dichotomy between the sacred and the
profanum to be the central characteristic of
religion: "religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to
sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden."
In Durkheim's theory, the sacred represented the interests of the group, especially unity, which were embodied in sacred group symbols, or
totems. The profane, on the other hand, involved mundane individual concerns. Durkheim explicitly stated that the dichotomy sacred/profane was not equivalent to good/evil. The sacred could be
good or
evil, and the profane could be either as well.
[Pals, Daniel. 1996. Seven Theories of Religion. New York: Oxford University Press. . p. 99]
In religion
Ancient religions
In ancient Roman religion, the concept of
sacrosanctity () was extremely important in attempting to protect the tribunes of the plebs from personal harm. The tribunician power was later arrogated to the
Roman emperor in large part to provide them with the role's sacred protections. In addition to sanctifying temples and similar sanctuaries, the Romans also undertook the ritual of the sulcus primigenius when founding a new cityparticularly
Roman colony order to make the entire circuit of the town's wall ritually sacred as a further means of protection. In order to allow the removal of corpses to graveyards and similarly profane work, the city gates were left exempted from the rite.
Indic religions
Indian religions, namely
Hinduism and its offshoots
Buddhism,
Jainism and
Sikhism, have concept of revering and conserving ecology and environment by treating various objects as sacred, such as rivers, trees, forests or groves, mountains, etc.
Hinduism
Sacred rivers and their reverence is a phenomenon found in several religions, especially religions which have
animism as core of their religion. For example, the
Indian religions (
Buddhism,
Hinduism,
Jainism, and
Sikism) revere and preserve the groves, trees, mountains and rivers as sacred. Among the most sacred rivers in Hinduism are the
Ganges,
,
rivers on which the
rigvedic rivers flourished. The
vedas and
Gita, the most sacred of
hindu texts were written on the banks of Sarasvati river which were codified during the
Kuru Kingdom in present-day
Haryana. Among other secondary sacred rivers of Hinduism are
Narmada and many more.
Among the sacred mountains, the most sacred among those are Mount Kailash[Snelling, John. (1990). The Sacred Mountain: The Complete Guide to Tibet's Mount Kailas. 1st edition 1983. Revised and enlarged edition, including: Kailas-Manasarovar Travellers' Guide. Forwards by H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet and Christmas Humphreys. East-West Publications, London and The Hague. , pp. 39, 33, 35, 225, 280, 353, 362–363, 377–378] (in Tibet), Nanda Devi, Char Dham mountains and Amarnath temple mountain, Gangotri mountain. Yamunotri mountain, Bandarpunch mountain (origin of Sarasvati River), Dhosi Hill, etc.
Buddhism
In
Theravada Buddhism one finds the designation of
Ariya-Puggala ('noble person'). Buddha described the Four stages of awakening of a person depending on their level of purity. This purity is measured by which of the ten
samyojana ('fetters') and
klesha have been purified and integrated from the
mindstream. These persons are called (in order of increasing sanctity)
Sotāpanna,
Sakadagami,
Anāgāmi, and
Arhat.
Abrahamic religions
Christianity
The range of denominations provide a wide variety of interpretations on sacredness. The
Anglican,
Catholic,
Lutheran, and
Methodism Churches, believe in
Holy Sacraments that the clergy perform, such as
Holy Communion and
Holy Baptism, as well as strong belief in the Holy Catholic Church,
Bible,
Holy Trinity, and the Holy Covenant. They also believe that angels and saints are called to holiness. In Methodist Wesleyan theology holiness has acquired the secondary meaning of the reshaping of a person through entire sanctification. The Holiness movement began within the
United States Methodist church among those who thought the church had lost the zeal and emphasis on personal holiness of Wesley's day. Around the middle of the 20th century, the Conservative Holiness Movement, a conservative offshoot of the Holiness movement, was born. The Higher Life movement appeared in the British Isles during the mid-19th century.
Commonly recognized outward expressions or "standards" of holiness among more fundamental adherents frequently include applications relative to dress, hair, and appearance: e.g., short hair on men, uncut hair on women, and prohibitions against shorts, pants on women, make-up and jewelry. Other common injunctions are against places of worldly amusement, mixed swimming, smoking, , as well as the eschewing of television and radio.
Islam
Among the names of God in the Quran is
Al-Quddus (): found in
and , the closest English translation is 'holy' or 'sacred'. (It shares the same triliteral Semitic root, Q-D-Š, as the Hebrew
kodesh.) Another use of the same root is found in the Arabic name for Jerusalem:
al-Quds, 'the Holy'.
The word Haram (), often translated as 'prohibited' or 'forbidden', is better understood as 'sacred' or 'sanctuary' in the context of places considered sacred in Islam. For example:
Judaism
The Hebrew word
kodesh () is used in the
Torah to mean 'set-apartness' and 'distinct' like is found in the Jewish marriage ceremony where it is stated by the husband to his prospective wife, "You are
made holy to me according to the law of Moses and Israel." (). In Hebrew,
holiness has a connotation of
oneness and
transparency like in the Jewish marriage example, where husband and wife are seen as one in keeping with Genesis 2:24.
Kodesh is also commonly translated as 'holiness' and 'sacredness'.
The Torah describes the
Kohen and the
as being selected by God to perform the Temple services; they, as well, are called "holy."
Holiness is not a single state, but contains a broad spectrum. The Mishnah lists concentric circles of holiness surrounding the Temple in Jerusalem: Holy of Holies, Temple Sanctuary, Temple Vestibule, Court of Priests, Court of Israelites, Court of Women, Temple Mount, the walled city of Jerusalem, all the walled cities of Israel, and the borders of the Land of Israel.[Mishnah Kelim, chapter 1] Distinctions are made as to who and what are permitted in each area.
Likewise, the Jewish holidays and the Shabbat are considered to be holy in time; the Torah calls them "holy days gathering." Work is not allowed on those days, and rabbinic tradition lists 39 categories of activity that are specifically prohibited.[Mishna, Shabbat 7:2]
Beyond the intrinsically holy, objects can become sacred through consecration. Any personal possession may be dedicated to the Temple of God, after which its misappropriation is considered among the gravest of sins. The various Korban are holy. Those that may be eaten have very specific rules concerning who may eat which of their parts, and time limits on when the consumption must be completed. Most sacrifices contain a part to be consumed by the priests—a portion of the holy to be consumed by God's holy devotees.
The encounter with the holy is seen as eminently desirable, and at the same time fearful and awesome. For the strongest penalties are applied to one who transgresses in this area—one could in theory receive either the death penalty or the heavenly punishment of kareth, spiritual excision, for mis-stepping in his close approach to God's domain.
See also
Sources
-
Durkheim, Emile (1915) The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. London: George Allen & Unwin (originally published 1915, English translation 1915).
-
Mircea Eliade (1957) The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. Translated by Willard R. Trask. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World).
-
Thomas Jay Oord and Michael Lodahl (2006) Relational Holiness: Responding to the Call of Love. Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill.
-
Pals, Daniel (1996) Seven Theories of Religion. New York: Oxford University Press. US (pbk).
-
Sharpe, Eric J. (1986) Comparative Religion: A History, 2nd ed., (London: Duckworth, 1986/La Salle: Open Court). US .
External links
