The Fullness of Space

The point of departure is the significance of space in Søren Kierkegaard’s temporal concept of the moment. The thesis is that the moment is not only the origin of temporality, but it makes also the dimensions of space possible. By making room for the human being, the moment gives the possibility to fill up that space, to be free, to attain the human being’s “fullness of space.” This making room must be understood as a movement of retreat, like in the Kabbalistic concept of Tzimtzum. Accordingly, the church must be understood not as God’s house, but as the place where God makes room for the human being. However, the church as an architectural space cannot create the fullness of space or create space for the fullness of time but, rather, can make space for the need for fullness of space. The article ends with an example: Peter Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Field Chapel. Zumthor has created not a sacred space, but a form that can house a sacred act and take care of it by symbolizing the original space-creating and freedom-creating act.