The Varieties of Spiritual Ties to Place

This article examines the construct of spiritual ties to place, a particular form of place attachment entailing a bond to the sacred within a place. Specifically, we explore what types of places people feel spiritual ties to, as well as the psychological characteristics of this unique person–place bond. An online sample of North American participants (N = 823) self-identifying with the Abrahamic traditions (281 Christians, 272 Muslims, 270 Jews) provided descriptions of a place they have a spiritual connection to. After conducting content analysis across underlying subgroups, we employed latent class analysis to identify the most common ways in which spiritual ties to place manifest. A four-class solution revealed distinct profiles: spiritual ties to (a) worship places, (b) natural places, (c) private places, and (d) unfrequented places. Although equivalent with regard to general place attachment, classes differed in terms of their spiritual ties, highlighting the unique explanatory power of this psychological construct. This study reveals how spiritual ties to place vary, in terms of both the kinds of locations people bond to and the unique psychological experiences that emerge from those bonds.