 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Place of worship" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
.jpg)
_in_Amritsar%2c_India.jpg)
Aplace of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as acongregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is sometimes called ahouse of worship.Temples,churches,mosques, andsynagogues are main examples of structures created for worship. Amonastery may serve both to house those belonging to religious orders and as a place of worship for visitors.Natural or topographical features may also serve as places of worship, and are consideredholy or sacrosanct in some religions; the rituals associated with theGanges river are an example inHinduism.
Underinternational humanitarian law and theGeneva Conventions, religious buildings are offered special protection, similar to the protection guaranteed hospitals displaying theRed Cross or Red Crescent. These international laws of war bar firing upon or from a religious building.
Religious architecture expresses the religious beliefs, aesthetic choices, and economic and technological capacity of those who create or adapt it, and thus places of worship show great variety depending on time and place.
The contemporary places of worship include following types:
The wordchurch derives from the Greekekklesia, meaningthe called-out ones. Its original meaning is to refer to the body of believers, or the body of Christ.[1] The wordchurch is used to refer to a Christian place of worship by someChristian denominations, includingAnglicans andCatholics. OtherChristian denominations, including theReligious Society of Friends,Mennonites,Christadelphians, and someunitarians, object to the use of the word "church" to refer to a building, as they argue that this word should be reserved for the body of believers who worship there.[2] Instead, these groups use words such as "Hall" to identify their places of worship or any building in use by them for the purpose of assembly.
AHindu temple is a symbolic house, seat and body of god. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together, using symbolism to express the ideas and beliefs ofHinduism.[4][5] The symbolism and structure of a Hindu temple are rooted in Vedic traditions, deploying circles and squares.[6] A temple incorporates all elements of Hindu cosmos—presenting the good, the evil and the human, as well as the elements of Hindu sense of cyclic time and the essence of life—symbolically presentingdharma,kama,artha,moksa, andkarma.[7][8][9]
Amosque (Arabic:مسجد,romanized: masjid), literally meaning "place of prostration", is a place of worship for followers ofIslam.There are strict and detailed requirements in Sunni jurisprudence (fiqh) for a place of worship to be considered a masjid, with places that do not meet these requirements regarded as musallas. There are stringent restrictions on the uses of the area formally demarcated as the mosque (which is often a small portion of the larger complex), and, in the Islamic Sharia law, after an area is formally designated as a mosque, it remains so until the Last Day.
Many mosques have elaborate domes, minarets, and prayer halls, in varying styles of architecture. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but are now found in all inhabited continents. The mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for salat (صلاة ṣalāt, meaning "prayer") as well as a center for information, education, social welfare, and dispute settlement. The imam leads the congregation in prayer.
Derasar is a word used for a Jain temple in Gujarat and southern Rajasthan.Basadi is aJain shrine or temple in Karnataka[10]There are some guidelines to follow when one is visiting a Jain temple:[11]
Some Jewish congregations use theYiddish term 'shul' (from the sameancient Greek source as the English word "school") to describe their place of worship, or theHebrewBeyt ha-Knesset (Hebrew בית הכנסת) meaning house of assembly.[12]
A religious precinct is the area around a religious site, such as atemple, that is dedicated to religious purposes. A religious precinct may bedefined by a physical enclosure, although this is not always the case.[13] Religious precincts are an aspect of the spatiality of religion.[14]
Religious precincts in urban settings often serve a mixture of religious and non-religious purposes.[14] In some cases, a religious precinct may take up a substantial part of a city: the sacred precinct inTenochtitlan encompassed 78 buildings.[15]
Inpolytheistic faiths, a religious precinct may encompass sites dedicated to multiple gods. The ancient Roman sacred precinct atAltbachtal encompassed more than 70 distinct temples.[16]
_(14767611841).jpg)
.jpg)
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help), Quote: "The [Hindu] temple is the seat and dwelling of God, according to the majority of the [Indian] names" (p. 135); "The temple as Vimana, proportionately measured throughout, is the house and body of God" (p. 133).{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Whether visible (as in the case of temples, churches, and synagogues) or invisible (as in the case of African spiritual traditions) the sacred precincts established and preserved by these minority groups attest to the maintenance of their cultural and religious identities.
Media related toPlaces of worship at Wikimedia CommonsBaháʼí Faith | |
|---|---|
Buddhism | |
Christianity | |
Hinduism | |
Jainism | |
Judaism | |
Islam | |
Mandaeism | |
Paganism &modern paganism | |
Shintoism | |
Sikhism | |
Taoism | |
Zoroastrianism | |
| Varying religions and beliefs | |
Note: Sorted alphabetically except the last one | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
