In Search of Permanent Homes: Singapore's House Churches and the Politics of Space

• Main Author: Kong, Lily
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2002
• Subjects: cultural landscape; political process; public space; religion; urban politics; land use; Singapore; Asian Studies; Religion; Urban Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1730; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/2987/viewcontent/SearchPermanentHomes_UrbanStudies_2002.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper focuses on one category of the 'unofficially sacred'-namely, those secular spaces which are used for worship and, in particular, residential spaces which are turned into 'house churches'. Using the case study of a house church in Singapore, the paper examines issues about the politics of religion in urban landscapes in a secular and simultaneously multireligious state. Contrary and in addition to current wisdoms about the politics of religious space, it is argued that various politics are observed: a politics of inclusion; a politics of hybridisation and in-betweenness; a politics of appropriation and nationalisation; and a politics of impermanence and precarity. Through this analysis, the paper seeks to bring added conceptual perspectives to the notion of 'sacred space' within the context of modern, urban, secular settings.