From Churches to Malls: Reconfiguring Worship Spaces in the Philippines

Rito Baring (De La Salle University)

This paper reviews the reconfigurations of the ‘centers’ of evangelization in modern-day Philippines. The investigation is focused on the shifts in understanding new places of worship in contrast to the traditional notions assigned to places of worship in colonial and post-colonial times. The shifts in understanding have gradually introduced newfound practices in the local churches which bear some pastoral and spiritual implications for the local church in the Philippines today. While the religious dispensation in colonial times placed the Church at the center side by side the seat of civil power representing the King of Spain, the new order sees the places of worship side by side the seats of entertainment. Has the demarcation between commerce and worship been eliminated? This paper shall thresh out the lines through a historical and religio-cultural investigation.

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