Religious Architecture and Social Dynamics: Adaptive Reuse, Heritage, Visibility, and Digital Transformation of Sacred Space

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue examines how religious architecture becomes a site of social negotiation, spatial conflict, and cultural transformation in contemporary societies. Rather than treating sacred buildings merely as symbolic expressions of religion or heritage, the issue approaches religious architecture as an active social actor embedded in specific, interrelated processes of urban change, cultural negotiation, and technological mediation.

The central question guiding the issue is as follows:

How do transformations of sacred space mirror social relations, collective identities, and spatial power in contemporary cultures?

The issue seeks to move beyond descriptive accounts of sacred buildings toward a critical analysis of how religious spaces participate in the production of inclusion and exclusion, visibility and marginalization, memory and erasure, belonging and displacement. Religious architecture is increasingly entangled with broader debates concerning urban restructuring, shrinking cities, heritage conflicts, commercialization, platform culture, environmental sustainability, and post-secular governance. Sacred spaces are not only shaped by these dynamics; they also actively reorganize social life, emotional atmospheres, and spatial practices.

I propose to focus the Special Issue on the four areas of interest. These four themes are analytically interconnected: adaptive reuse raises questions of heritage; heritage conflicts are inseparable from issues of religious visibility; and digital mediation increasingly intersects with all three. Together, they allow the issue to develop a focused and theoretically coherent account of sacred architecture as a dynamic field of social negotiation, spatial governance, and cultural transformation.

1. Adaptive Reuse, Desacralization, and Contested Heritage

As religious communities shrink across many European and North American contexts, formerly sacred buildings are increasingly subject to conversion, repurposing, or demolition. This theme examines the social, legal, and cultural conflicts surrounding adaptive reuse—from churches transformed into apartments, cultural venues, or mosques, to the political contestation of heritage designation. Contributions are invited to explore how processes of desacralization are negotiated among religious communities, urban planners, heritage institutions, and local residents, and what these negotiations reveal about the contested value of sacred space in post-secular societies.

2. Religious Visibility and Spatial Politics in Multicultural Urban Contexts

The presence of religious buildings in urban space is never neutral. The construction of mosques, temples, or minority religious centres frequently becomes a flashpoint for wider debates about belonging, cultural difference, and the governance of diversity. This theme focuses on how religious architecture functions as a marker of spatial claims and symbolic recognition, and how urban planning regimes mediate—or suppress—religious visibility. Comparative and transnational perspectives on the spatial politics of religious presence in multicultural cities are especially encouraged.

3. Contested Meanings of Heritage Preservation

Heritage preservation is increasingly recognized as a field of power rather than neutral conservation. Sacred buildings become sites where competing historical narratives, religious identities, and political interests intersect. This theme invites contributions examining how heritage frameworks are applied—or withheld—in relation to religious architecture: who defines the heritage value of a sacred building, whose memories are privileged, and how preservation conflicts illuminate broader struggles over collective identity, urban memory, and postcolonial or post-conflict spatial politics.

4. Digitally Mediated and Hybrid Forms of Sacred Presence

Digital technologies are profoundly reshaping how religious communities relate to sacred space. From virtual worship and livestreamed rituals to augmented reality pilgrimage applications and AI-mediated spiritual experiences, the boundaries between physical and digital sacred environments are becoming increasingly porous. This theme explores the social and spatial implications of digital religion: How do hybrid sacred environments reconfigure practices of belonging, ritual, and community? How do platform cultures and digital mediations interact with—and sometimes displace—material sacred spaces?

Theoretical Framework and Disciplinary Dialogue

The issue encourages theoretically informed and empirically grounded contributions. Relevant theoretical approaches include, but are not limited to:

• Sociology of religion and sociology of space;
• Anthropology of space and material religion;
• Urban studies, spatial planning, and critical geography;
• Heritage and memory studies;
• Media and digital studies;
• Affect theory and the sociology of atmospheres;
• Post-humanist and new materialist perspectives.

By fostering dialogue between social sciences, humanities, and design-oriented disciplines, the issue aims to develop a critical and interdisciplinary understanding of sacred architecture as a site where cultural transformations, spatial governance, and social imaginaries intersect. The editors particularly encourage comparative, transnational, and methodologically innovative contributions that connect local case studies with broader theoretical debates.

Suggested Topics

• Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
• Conflicts surrounding the adaptive reuse of churches, synagogues, and other religious buildings;
• Legal and political frameworks governing desacralization and building conversion;
• Community responses to the repurposing of sacred sites;
• Spatial politics of religious site construction and religious minority visibility;
• Urban planning, zoning, and the governance of religious presence;
• Heritage designation as a site of power and contestation;
• Augmented and mixed reality in pilgrimage and sacred tourism;
• Platform culture and the mediated spatiality of religion;
• Intersections of digital mediation with material sacred space;
• Comparative perspectives across religious traditions and geographical contexts;
• Shrinking cities, post-industrial regions, and the future of sacred buildings.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor Prof. Dr. Marcin Jewdokimow (m.jewdokimow@uksw.edu.pl), or to the Assistant Editor Ms. Evelyn Zeng (evelyn.zeng@mdpi.com) of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Deadline for abstract submission: 31 October 2026

Deadline for full manuscript submission: 31 January 2027 

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Marcin Jewdokimow
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• religious architecture
• sacred space
• adaptive reuse
• desacralization
• heritage conflicts
• religious visibility
• multicultural urbanism
• post-secular urbanism
• digital religion
• hybrid sacred environments
• sociology of space
• material religion
• spatial politics
• cultural geography
• urban religion