ABSTRACT
In the last chapter we looked at the way in which a sacramental approach to reality has been expounded by many writers, and have commended it, but suggested that it is more satisfactory to begin with an appreciation of sacramental encounters in which the material becomes a vehicle for God's self-communication. In such events the role of place is essential. When places become associated with divine disclosure they become the defining coordinates of a sacred geography the function of which is to remind believers that they are to understand all their experience in the light of the creation of the world by God and its redemption in Jesus Christ. Sacramental encounters have also an eschatological dimension, since they reveal the reality of things as they will be. This sacramental understanding allows us to steer a middle course between ignoring the importance of the material, and its idolatrous exaltation. In this chapter I want to make clear that the significance of place thus understood has been a vital part of the Christian tradition from the earliest times, even though it may not have been articulated as such. In doing so I want, too, to expand on how a sacramental understanding of place developed in the last chapter might be related to holy places and churches.
