ABSTRACT
In order to be clear about the use of terms we need to begin by teasing out the difference between the two terms 'space' and 'place' as I shall use them in what follows. Many people, including theologians, use the terms interchangeably, but this leads to the concept being rather unclarified. Einstein pointed out the difficulty when he wrote that when different authors use words like 'red,' hard' or 'disappointed', no one doubts that they mean more or less the same thing, because 'these words are connected with elementary experiences in a manner which is difficult to misinterpret. But in the case of words such as "place" or "space", whose relation with psychological experience is less direct, there exists a far reaching uncertainty of interpretation'.1 The situation is complicated by the fact that, as the geographer David Harvey reminds us, the term 'place' has an extraordinary range of metaphorical meanings: 'We talk about the place of art in social life, the place of women in society, our place in the cosmos, and we internalise such notions psychologically in terms of knowing our place, or feeling that we have a place in the affections or esteem of others.'2 He goes on to remind us that by putting people, events and things in their proper place we express norms, and concludes that 'place' is one of the most multipurpose words in the English language.
