What if our church buildings could talk? What if our temple walls could speak? What would they tell us about our faith?

Jeanne Halgren Kilde, the director of University of Minnesota's religious studies program, studies the sacred spaces people use for worship. She is like a "horse whisperer" for church buildings. She looks carefully at their designs and uses -- and asks a simple question: "What does a particular space and its use tell us about sacredness?"

Kilde spoke at the "Sacred Space Symposium," sponsored by the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding at BYU, on Wednesday, June 3. She said the buildings, churches, temples and other spaces used for religious purposes tell us much about the doctrine, attitudes and power structures of the people who use them.

The New Testament tells how the apostle Paul preached on the third floor of a Roman home. (Acts 20:5-12) Kilde said the room was a "triclinium," the room used for dining that was lined with benches and couches along three sides so guests could recline to eat their food. "A certain informality probably ensued," Kilde said. People sat where they could, including on the window sill. Paul, however, was most likely in a place of honor -- the head couch. This position would help establish his authority in the space.

The basilica form, a long building with interior columns leading to an elevated space for the altar at one end, helped to establish the authority of the clergy. "Such formalism in the use of space, that is, the creation of boundaries, forbidden areas and precise activities within religious space ... characterized Christian worship for centuries," Kilde said.

Some more changes came during the Reformation. The pulpit remained high but was placed to the side of the church in the center. "The pulpit marks enormous authority when you are standing up above everybody and they have to all sit below and look up," Kilde said.

The altar was no longer isolated as it had been under the basilica form because the protestant theology toward the Eucharist, or what Mormons would call the sacrament, took away its mystery.

Some other changes occurred as well. Some churches eliminated the center aisle. But often the space put the authority of the speaker over the practicality of the congregation being able to see or even hear the him.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached at Gwynnap Pit. The place was a former mining pit and made a perfect outdoor amphitheater. But Wesley wouldn't preach from the bottom of the pit even though that would have made it easy to hear him. Instead, he preached from the top and shouted down and across the pit. Authority trumped function.

Things began to change in the 1830s as people gained more power socially and culturally.

The Broadway Tabernacle in New York City was finished around 1836. Kilde said it was unprecedented in its design for a church because it was like an amphitheater and made it easy to see and hear the preacher. "Suddenly the power, the physical relationship, had shifted. The people's needs outshone those of the preacher."

The LDS Church's Kirtland Temple also was erected in 1836. Kilde described the main meeting area with pulpits at both ends -- one side to represent the Melchizedek Priesthood authority and the other side for the Aaronic Priesthood. The chairs could turn to face either side. "The Latter-day Saints created a wholly new type of Christian space that underscored the authority of the priesthood," she said.

The rise of the middle class after the Civil War saw more auditorium-type church spaces where everybody could see each other. They were like stages and saw the rise of celebrity preachers. "The individual gathered his authority not through his office, but through his own personal ability to hold the attention of those gathered," Kilde said.

This was about the time that the design of LDS temple endowment rooms developed. Kilde said she would like to see more scholarly attention given to how Mormon temple spaces came to fruition. "I'm not in a position to do that study, of course. As a non-Mormon, I can't be there to watch," she said -- hoping that some graduate students at BYU were listening.

"How personal empowerment works within spaces is also really important. It is something we need to be aware of," Kilde said. "If we are not aware of what is actually happening in the pews, I think we are missing much of the soul of religious experience."

E-mail: mdegroote@desnews.com