Introduction

This chapter presents scholarly essays about icons of space, including but not limited to their occurrence in art and architecture. Contributors to this volume are scholars trained in art history, architecture, architectural history and theory, theology, history, and human geography who consider the overarching theme of icons of space, broadly defined. The book opens with the texts by Michele Bacci and Andrew Simsky, who reflect on the development of hierotopy and situate it within a historiographical overview. The notion of the paradigm shift is usually invoked in explaining the relevance of new disciplines and methods beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. Because hierotopy can be understood as a paradigm shift in the making, this soft transitioning is also characteristic of its terminology and taxonomy. This volume, therefore, aims to advance the theory about the creation and icons of sacred space while at same time disrupting positivistic and colonial scholarship focused predominantly on religion and politics as expressions of privileged knowledge and power.