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For other uses, see Temple (disambiguation).
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites (as in masonry). It is a general term for a house of worship. As a distinct term from those used to describe other religious structures, a temple is often viewed as a dwelling place of a god or gods. Temples have been built by both ancient and modern religions according to a wide variety of traditions in religious architecture.
The majority of the main temples, along the major religions, are aligned in the cardinal directions, especially in an east-west axis which symbolically represents the sun's path, the "donor of life".
In Judaism, from the Bible, the hebrew term for temple is "sanctuary", "palace" or "hall". A temple is a "palace of God" if you will.
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Etymology
The word is derived from the both more and less specific Latin word templum ("sacred place"). Initially, the templum was a section (cognate to Greek temnein "to cut or divide", see temenos, and (unrelated) temen) carved out of the heavens, used by the augurs for divination – see Roman temple. It is interesting to note that this spatial division has its temporal equivalent with tempus (the time) deriving from the same temnein origin, as a division of the duration.
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Religious terminology
Some religions using the term temple, exclusively or alongside specific synonym(s):
Some religions refer to their temples by a unique word of their own:
In Christianity, God is not believed to live in a church but is omnipresent. As 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 says Christians are the temple of God, considered equivalent to the Temple in Jerusalem. Usually the building is called a church, but may sometimes be called a temple.
In Western Christianity, some "private" temples are called chapels, while major public ones are designated by a term reflecting its ecclesiastical status, such as cathedral (i.e. seat of a diocesan bishop), basilica, or minster, and/or proper to a cultural tradition, e.g. kirk (Scotts, cognate with church) or Dom (Dutch and (German, English cognate Dome only used in architecture).
Protestant denominations installed in France in the early modern era use the word "temple" (as opposed to "church," supposed to be Roman Catholic); some more recently installed Christian denominations use "church."
A Shintoist temple is called a jinja, or in English a shrine, as opposed to temples (-tera, -dera) as in Buddhism.
Various Far Eastern temples are called pagoda in western languages
Numerous sects, syncretisms and other non-mainstream religious cults also have temples
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Parareligious traditions
Masonic temples are meeting places for Freemasons, who, though not members of a church, follow some religious practices. However, precisely to avoid confusion with religious temples, the Shriners renamed their temples "Shrine Centers".
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Temple architecture
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In various historical periods, specific architectural styles were maintained strictly for major religious structures. These temple structures, along with military and palace structures, have often been the main surviving studied examples of certain kinds of architecture. In terms of ancient temple architecture, the Most Holy Place was called in Greek Naos or in Latin Cella: the actual interior dwelling of (the most sacred image of) the deity in the center of the religious structure, forbidden to laymen.
The complex of the Temple of Karnak in Egypt is regarded by some as the world's largest religious structure. The distinctive architectural styles reflect the design of these structures as a dwelling place for the Gods rather than as a gathering place for veneration and worship per se.
In particular, Greek and Roman temple architecture has been a major influence in Western public architecture. See list of ancient temple structures.
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List of religious temples
In Republic of China ( Taiwan ) for non-Buddhist worship:
In China:
In Japan:
In the United States:
The Temple at Independence, Missouri (Community of Christ)
In Mexico:
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Additional reading
Hani, Jean, Le symbolisme du temple chrétien, G. Trédaniel (editor); 2. éd. edition (1978), 207 p., ISBN 2-85707-030-6
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See also
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