BOOK MANUSCRIPTS

Rediscovering Sacred Spaces through Echoes of Ritual: Ritual-Architectural Experience at Horvat Beit Loya. Book manuscript offering a fresh reinterpretation of the archaeological remains of the Byzantine church complex at Horvat Beit Loya, Israel through the lens of ritual experience. By applying Lindsay Jones’ morphological framework for understanding sacred architecture, this study explores the interplay between architecture, liturgy, and religious symbolism at the site. The book investigates the spatial and architectural elements of the church to uncover ways in which these elements shaped and were shaped by Byzantine Christian ritual practices. Through this approach, the work illuminates the deeper symbolic meanings embedded within the architectural forms. It offers new insights into the sacred spaces and ritual experiences that defined the Byzantine liturgical tradition at Horvat Beit Loya.

Gendered Sacred Space: Hermeneutical Messages from Christianity. Book manuscript investigating gender separation practices that occurred during worship for over two millennia within the Christian tradition. This research looks at diverse sociopolitical and interreligious perspectives in attempt to paint a more complete interpretation of the origin of this practice. It also seeks to explain how this practice has been viewed over time and why it has often led to the marginalization of women in sacred spaces.

One Eternal Round: Temple, Cosmos, History. Book manuscript exploring interreligious dialogue between different typologies of sacred architecture. In particular, it seeks to find common ground in the theological intersections between sacred architecture, the Zodiacal constellations, and episodes of sacred history found within Mormonism and the broader Judeo-Christian milieu. The monograph expands a previously published paper in the Journal of Comparative Theology at Harvard Divinity School.

Holiness to the Lord: The Sacred Architecture of Latter-day Saint Temples. Book manuscript that compares Latter-day Saint sacred architecture against other religious traditions synchronically using Lindsay Jones’ “morphology of ritual-architectural priorities.” The book then charts the morphology of Latter-day Saint sacred architecture and its evolution diachronically over time to produce a critical history of temple architecture.

ARTICLES / PAPERS

“Sacred Spaces Reimagined: Exploring Artificial Intelligence in the Ritual-Architectural Design Process,” in Religion and AI: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches. (Bloomsbury). PROPOSAL ACCEPTED

“Exploring the Beauty of Tradition: How Fractal Geometry Influences Visual Attention in Architectural Design.” Co-authored with Xavier Parareda, UNDER REVIEW

“Extraordinary Encounters with Catholic Sacred Architecture.” Journal article investigating survey results from an existing database of extraordinary architectural experiences. Focuses on transformative human encounters that have occurred in Catholic sacred architecture to understand their unique characteristics.

“(Re)interpreting Jerusalem’s Sacred Ceremonial Center: A Look at the Jewish Temple’s Symbolic Ideology from a Morphological Perspective.” Journal article utilizing comparative methods from historians of religion to (re)interpret the Jerusalem Temple as a ceremonial center and identify the unique interrelationships between architecture (form), religion (ideals), ritual (function), culture (tradition), and environment (geography).

“Turning Towards the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Astroarchitectural Orientation.” Journal article utilizing research methods from archaeoastronomy to map the physical orientation of a building and its architectural features. Over 150 temples case studies are examined in this manner to produce a more precise mapping of orientation preference and its theological interpretation.

“Towards an Architecture of Continuity or Discontinuity: Integrating the Identity of the Temple into a Global Context.” Paper outlining the religio-political implications of architectural design and site selection of Latter-day Saint temples throughout a global context.