Paul Post In medio ecclesiae: On the Spatial Setting of the Marriage Ritual The article takes a closer look at the current spatial setting of rites in Roman Catholic churches, with particular attention to the celebration of the rite of marriage. It highlights a series of current trends in the area of ritual theory and sacramental theology as well as trends in thought about cultus and church architecture. The author begins by placing the spatial setting of the marriage ritual in historical perspective. Pre- and non-Christian practices that informed the structure of Christian marriage were generally set within the domestic area. These practices developed into ceremonies that could be celebrated either within the house of the couple or within a church communal liturgy linked with the Eucharist, giving rise to a tension between juridically oriented contracts and ecclesial covenants, between worldly and church authority. In the Middle Ages, this tension caused the border area, the threshold of the church, to become more significant. The church’s vestibule often became the place where contracts were made and agreements were sealed. The council of Trent (1545-1563) then made the parochial church building the central locus, directly connecting the marriage celebration to the celebration of the Word and the Eucharist. The wedding ceremony was thus brought before the priestly altar, but the familial dimension retained its importance. Recently, the significant decrease in the percentage of the population that considers itself to be a member of a church community and the related increase in civil marriages raises the question of how to create a ritual space for liturgy that meaningfully responds to the general desire for spiritual meaningfulness as well as the need for a space that creates and welcomes the new brand of (late or post-) modern community. Although liturgical space has long been seen to be a social center, people today fill their need for spiritual places with museums, “shopping center temples”, and theme parks rather than churches. Post notes how particularly German theologians and liturgists are emphasizing a Christian approach to the sacred wherein “sacred” is always a relative and personal category, never linked solely to emotion and mood. Sacred space, then, could be polycentric, having specific areas around which the sacraments, and the corresponding times of the life cycle, could be celebrated. The marriage ritual, for example, would have its own prominent space in such a polycentric church. The author makes the case that such space be considered as equivalent to the modern reception hall, listing how fundamental elements of this feast can be applied to space. Finally, the author presents two very distinct churches that illustrate his argument of how sacred space participates in the sacramental celebrations: St. Peter’s Church in Leiden and St. Andrew’s Church in Heerlen.