The term liminality has become so pervasive in the humanities that its overuse, or misuse, in studies of thresholds—whether real, imagined, or symbolic—often runs the risk of delegitimating the concept of a physical, material limen within architectural and art historical analysis. It is therefore refreshing to encounter a volume such as Emilie M. van Opstall's Sacred Thresholds: The Door to the Sanctuary in Late Antiquity, which explores the myriad ways in which doors to sacred spaces served as both physical objects and metaphysical conceits, and as conduits between human and divine experience.
This edited volume is the product of a 2015 interdisciplinary conference held at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam titled “The Door of the Sanctuary: A Place of Transition.” The twelve essays in the book are divided among four thematic sections, with van Opstall's general introduction providing an excellent primer on the methodological approaches used by the contributing authors....
University of California Press