The Agora, meaning " gathering place " or " assembly ", was the center of athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life of the polis.

The newly built cathedral, the Mother Church in Echmiadzin became and remains the spiritual and cultural center of Armenian Christianity and center of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

James Mellaart, who excavated the site, believed that Çatalhöyük was the spiritual center of central Anatolia.

" Tablets found at Nippur, a Sumerian spiritual center south of Baghdad, described the collection of poppy juice in the morning and its use in production of opium.

The film presents Ricky as its " visionary ... its spiritual and mystical center ".

Radial streets extend outward from a defined center of military, communal or spiritual power.

Before they surrendered to United States troops, the Mojave held lands along the river that stretched from Black Canyon, where the tall pillars of First House of Mutavilya loomed above the river, past Avi kwame or Spirit Mountain, the center of spiritual things, to the Quechan Valley, where the lands of other tribes began.

Essentially the World Tree and the Vision Serpent, representing the king, created the center axis which communicates between the spiritual and the earthly worlds or planes.

It is through ritual that the king could bring the center axis into existence in the temples and create a doorway to the spiritual world, and with it power ".

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America ( JTS or JTSA ) is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.

Over the ruins of Yasodharapura, Jayavarman constructed the walled city of Angkor Thom, as well as its geographic and spiritual center, the temple known as the Bayon.

Mount Meru (), also called Sumeru i. e. the " Excellent Meru " and Mahameru i. e. " Great Meru ", is a sacred mountain in Jain cosmology, Hindu as well as Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.

The spiritual center of the town was a community séance room, demolished only when Highway 101 was put through in the 1950s.

Hsi Lai was built to serve as a spiritual and cultural center for those interested in learning Buddhism and Chinese culture.

* The Abode of the Message – A residential spiritual community, conference center and school of esoteric study

Before the identity of Lorton, the commercial center was Colchester and the spiritual and historical center of the community around which the leading citizens of the time revolved was Pohick Church.

The following year, he established an international center for Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, California, which became the spiritual and administrative heart of his growing work.

Ashley describes Chimayó in his foreword to the libretto as " the spiritual center of the lowrider world ... Now Eleanor conceives of a television documentary program to study the exotic lowrider community ... in the car shops " of Chimayo.

Eliade's articles before and after his adherence to the principles of the Iron Guard ( or, as it was usually known at the time, the Legionary Movement ), beginning with his famous Itinerar spiritual (" Spiritual Itinerary ", serialized in Cuvântul in 1927 ), center on several political ideals advocated by the far right.

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin () is the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the worldwide Armenian Church, the center of the faith of the Armenian nation – the Mother Cathedral of the Armenian Church, and the Pontifical residence of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

Isolation and lack of a religious and spiritual center led to a decline of Jewish knowledge.

In the center it has a purple or violet cross: symbol of Christianity and its ecclesiastical order ; it represents the spiritual life.

We serve as a center to facilitate people in the pursuit of Judaism as a spiritual way of life.

Consequent discussions of Christian Gnosticism included pre-Christian religious beliefs and spiritual practices argued to be common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism ( especially Zurvanism ), and Neoplatonism.

This Jewish rabbinical concept of a " higher Gan Eden " is opposed by the Hebrew terms Gehinnom and Sheol, figurative names for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism, a place envisioned as being at the greatest possible distance from " heaven ".

Although traditional Judaism had adopted some features of Kabbalah, it adapted them to fit its own system: it added to its own ritualism the asceticism of the " practical kabbalists " just across the eastern borders in the ancient Greek and Anatolian Jewish communities under the Ottoman Empire, who saw the essence of earthly existence only in fasting, in penance, and in spiritual sadness.

The Hasidic concept of a Rebbe also combines their role as a teacher of Judaism and as a charismatic spiritual example.

Judaism teaches that this makes physical the spiritual connection between Pesach and Shavuot.

Modern Judaism and Islam view sexual intercourse between husband and wife as a spiritual and edifying action.

Many UU congregations have study groups that examine the traditions and spiritual practices of Neopaganism, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Pantheism, and other faiths.

The spiritual role of Judaism is to reach the level of perceiving the truth of the paradox, that all is One, spiritual and physical Creation being nullified into absolute Divine Monotheism.

In Hasidic Judaism, generally understood as a branch of Orthodox Judaism, there are dynastic spiritual leaders known as Rebbes, often translated in English as " Grand Rabbi ".

Haredi Judaism is not an institutionally cohesive or homogeneous group, but comprises a diversity of spiritual and cultural orientations, generally divided into a broad range of Hasidic sects, Lithuanian-Yeshivish streams from Eastern Europe, and Oriental Sephardic Haredim.

Some within the Orthodox world advocate that while non-Orthodox forms of Judaism are incorrect, they nonetheless have functional validity and spiritual dignity.

His Judaism " tended to be social rather than spiritual.

However, Judaism does not encourage people to seek pleasure for its own sake but rather to do so in a spiritual way.

There are various routes that enable one to embark on a spiritual journey ( i. e. different religion e. g. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Eckankar, Judaism, Godianism, Ọdịnalaism and so on ).

By focusing the student on self understanding and introspection, often with profound psychological insight, the spiritual aims of Judaism could be internalised.

As the 19th Century brought upheavals and threats to traditional Judaism, the Mussar teachers saw the benefit of the new spiritual focus in Hasidism, and developed their alternative ethical approach to spirituality.

The appellation “ Baal Shem ” was not unique to Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer ; however, it is Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer who is most closely identified as a “ Baal Shem ”, as he was the founder of the spiritual movement of Hasidic Judaism.

He has been referred to as the father of Reform Judaism, though Reform spokesmen have been " resistant to claim him as their spiritual father ".

In 1999, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the official body of American Reform rabbis, authored " A Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism ", meant to describe and define the spiritual state of modern Reform Judaism.

Convinced of the necessity of a central authority for Judaism, Akiva became a devoted adherent and friend of Gamaliel, who aimed at constituting the patriarch the true spiritual chief of the Jews ( R. H. ii.

Benjamin expressed " My life experience led me to this insight: the Jews represent an elite in the ranks of the spiritually active ... For Judaism is to me in no sense an end in itself, but the most distinguished bearer and representative of the spiritual.