Houses Of Worship In All Their Forms
America was built on faith. It is "one nation under God," but with such varied sacred spaces — a landscape of churches, synagogues, temples and mosques, simple meeting houses, and grand cathedrals.
Two-thirds of Americans regularly attend religious services to feel the power of faith expressed through stone, steel and glass.
Across America, religious spaces are as different as religious messages. But the emotional connection is often the same. To believers, a house of worship is a home for the soul.
Lucy Gilmour, a photo editor for House & Garden Magazine, just published the book "Houses of Worship," a guide to America's sacred spaces — from the glimmer of California's Crystal Cathedral to the restrained geometry of New York's Islamic Cultural Center.
"For many people, they may be not quite listening to everything that's going on," Gilmour told CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann, "but they may be noticing the way that light falls from this window or the stained glass or the atmosphere, the stillness or the echo. I don't think you have to have an affinity for it; I think you absorb it."
Along its spiritual journey, the book visits the old Mormon Tabernacle in Provo, Utah, the Catholic Center at the University of Kansas, the Enmanji Buddhist temple in Sebastopol, Calif., and Missouri's Marjorie Powell Allen Chapel by the architect Fay Jones.
In Atlanta, rabbi Jeffrey Salkin leads Georgia's oldest synagogue, known simply as "The Temple."See more examples of America's great places of prayer, some of which are in "Houses of Worship"
"This is really a relic," he said. "But it's a gentle relic. It's not an irrelevant relic. It's about the grandeur that we want to feel in our spiritual lives."
So this building, designed with all its grandeur, was clearly in its day, a statement.
"Absolutely," Salkin said. "We are here. We're not going anywhere. We are really here. We're not going anywhere. We're not fleeing. We are Jews. We are citizens of Atlanta. Citizens of America."
In 1958, that conviction was tested. segregationists bombed the temple, furious that its leadership supported civil rights. The event was touched on in the film "Driving Miss Daisy" based on the novel by Alfred Uhry, who was a member of the congregation.
All the building's scars from the bombings are gone, but everywhere here, as in all sacred spaces, you sense expressions of timeless faith, pride, belonging and belief.
"To its members and to people who worship here regularly," Salkin said. "And there are many of them. This is their Jewish living room. This is where they live. This is home."