Now we have done it. On September 11, 2009, Perkins School of Theology dedicated a new building (Prothro Hall), two renovated buildings (Kirby and Selecman Halls), and a stone labyrinth in the open and accessible space between Prothro and Selecman.
This labyrinth is a new thing for us. But its history can be traced for thousands of years. And, in some ways, it is a labyrinthine history.
Maze-like patterns have been found that are 15,000 years old. They are known from pre-Christian history in Scandinavia, Tibet, Russia, Greece, India, Egypt and Israel. After persisting through the millennia, they were adopted by Christians for spiritual purposes. One has been found in the floor of a church in Algeria that dates from 324 A.D. By the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300), labyrinths had nearly become standard features in the floors of great churches and abbeys across Europe, most notably in the cathedral at Chartres, where one was placed in 1215.
For Christians, labyrinths had specific spiritual purposes. They served as a way to make a sacred pilgrimage even if one could not undertake an actual journey to a holy place (the shrine of a saint) or to the holy land. They engaged the body, the soul and the mind in a focusing upon movement along a defined path. And they fostered a sacred promise that if one followed the one way of life, it would lead to peace.
That is how a labyrinth differs from a maze. Typically a maze is a puzzle through which one moves toward a goal while encountering a number of paths that reach a dead end. A labyrinth, on the other hand, is one single, coiled pathway leading toward a center and then back to the world again. Follow the way of faith in a labyrinth, and one will find peace and be able to return to the world.
By the 16th century, this approach to Christian theology was seriously challenged. In the 18th century, efforts were made to destroy labyrinths and the theology that accompanied them. Instead of taking the mysterious and winding path, Christians were told they should walk the straight and narrow path.
In the 20th century the merits of the labyrinth as a way of engaging in meditation, contemplation and spiritual transformation began to be rediscovered. A few hundred are now publicly available in the United States. The one at Perkins School of Theology, given in honor of SMU Professor of World Religions and Spirituality Ruben Habito, will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to anyone who seeks to walk the path toward peace.
Sources consulted include these publications: Jacques Attali, The Labyrinth in Culture and Society [Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1999]; Patrick Conty, The Genesis and Geometry of the Labyrinth [Rochester VT: Inner Traditions International, 2002]; and Craig Wright, The Maze and the Warrior [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001]
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