Chidester And Linenthal Analysis

In the case of Chidester 's & Linenthal 's essay versus Sherrill 's essay, there are quite a few similarities and one important difference. In Chidester and Linenthal, they mostly discuss the politics of sacred space, and how politics play into the geography, the ownership, and the title of “sacred”. Chidester and Linenthal speak more directly to the reality of sacred space and how a site can logically take the steps in order to become one. They speak about substantial versus situational, and focus highly on the situational through politics. They also mention Van der Leeuw when explaining the politics of power, inclusion, and exclusion in terms of a sacred space. However, Chidester and Linenthal do not speak directly to the imagination or

Sherrill on the other hand, speaks directly not to the politics of America, but to the mythos, the narrative. Sherrill does not go into heavy political logistics like Chidester and Linenthal do, instead Sherrill speaks on behalf of the cultural and conscious aspects of defining a sacred space. Sherrill makes a good argument when he discusses Linenthal’s approach towards the argument of deciding what is sacred. He states that Linenthal tries to find a particular pattern, the logistics. Meanwhile Sherrill is more concerned with using the words “sacred space” as an adjective, instead of allowing it to become a noun, losing all the cultural landscape it once had. Linenthal focused more on the arrival and recognition of a sacred place, meanwhile Sherrill uses different arguments to piece together the origin, and the structure of immediacy of the space. Sherrill focuses on the internal sense of sacred space, how and why a person might consider a site sacred whether it is due to religious or cultural narrative. Overall, the mythos of America is very important to Sherrill, because the characteristics, history, religion, and culture all play a part in dictating a site to be sacred. For Chidester and Linenthal, a site is made sacred through situational steps, requirements, rituals. Sherrill states towards the end that although Linenthal provides a good argument regarding why the battleground is a sacred space through ownership of politics, he does not go into the narrative and the story regarding why people may culturally believe it is