Faith through the lens of forms : a study on the significance of religious architecture of Singapore in fostering interfaith understanding

Abstract

The inception of the colonial past led to an impetus to the growth of Singapore to be home to a highly heterogeneous population that had travelled from across the seas. Since their arrivals, the small island had transformed into a dynamic and remarkably unique island, exemplary of a multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-religious society where the community live harmoniously together. Bridging the differences across cultures and religious beliefs while fostering a healthy and flourishing plural society that embraced peaceful co-existence had never been an easy task for everyone. The spectrum of challenges that spawned from a multitude of differences could be daunting and equally monumental. It required not only an excellent foresight from the pioneering populace, but also an abundance of dedication, diligence, empathy, and sensitivities. It was undoubtedly the result of a sound education supported by the inculcation of shared values and attitudes within a common space that Singaporeans came to have the confidence, trust, and mutual respect for one another in order to co-exist in the same environment. Given the existing backdrop, the topic had been carefully studied with the intent to position religious architectural forms, as a beacon and a tool to support the understanding of the religious faiths. With a hybrid research methodology, it attempted to articulate the manifestations of the architecture of faiths and documenting the understanding and observations of the community in relation to the message of the religion and the religious architecture. Subsequently, it explored the effectiveness of the architectural forms, as a significant source of knowledge in understanding the respective religious faiths. With the knowledge harnessed and harvested, the outcome of the study sought to uncover the role religious architecture plays and can play in fostering interfaith understanding and cultivating mutual respect among the racial communities. Notwithstanding the abundance of research studies on this subject matter, many of the prior research studies seemed to be very limited in scope, focusing more on the visual and aesthetic appearance of the architecture itself without positioning the forms of religious architecture as a source of knowledge on the religious faiths. There were many narratives dedicated to religious architectures and these may and often do, serve as a ground for further analysis of the relationship between faith and various aspects of what constitutes architecture. What followed from this exercise was certainly not a completed account of the ways how knowledge could be derived from the architectural forms to forge and facilitate understanding, but rather a platform that others can build on and around to spring-board further research.