"Sacred Space in Non-Places : An Analysis of Filipino Catholicism in the Age of ‘Supermodernity’" / Tallara, Mark Inigo M.

Published in the International Journal of Asian Christianity: Vol. 8 (2025): Iss. 2 :
Special Issue: Asian Catholic Materials and Space

Abstract:
This paper is about non-places and how they have changed religious spaces and practices in the Philippines. Non-places like shopping malls and airport terminals as defined by Marc Augé (2008), are created by globalization and modernization. It is a term he uses to describe the accelerated pace of life, and the dominance of technology in contemporary society. In non-places, individuals become anonymous and interactions are often transactional (Augé, 2008). Through an ethnohistorical analysis, this paper examines how Filipinos have adapted to the rise of Catholic chapels inside the shopping malls (ccim, hereafter) in metropolitan Manila. What is a sacred space in this kind of non-place? How are non-places shaping and changing Catholicism in the Philippines? These questions frame Catholic spaces in the context of ‘supermodernity’, a socio-political environment in which space and time are experienced under new conditions. The research findings relied on the discussion of the study of religious space highlighting the role of power in the production of social space (Lefebvre, 1974). Moreover, the analysis also considers the idea of pamumuwesto or how Filipino Catholics position themselves in a ritual space, and commutatio, or how they substitute a sacred site for another place (Tallara, 2022). The discussions are critical in analyzing how the sense of community and social connection associated with sacred spaces challenge the notions of anonymity, transience, and (dis)connection of non-places.