BATHS in a religious context are sacred places where people bathe not for hygienic purposes, but rather to spiritually re-create themselves in both mind and body. Spiritual bathing may take place in sacred spaces in nature, for example in hot springs or in the water of a sacred river such as the Ganges or Nile, or in buildings made out of stone (Roman baths) or wood (saunas).

Sauna is a Finnish and Sami word for a building where one bathes for the purpose of cleansing body and mind. It has somewhat varied meanings, including commercial and erotic ones, in communities without a history of sauna culture. Sauna has been part of the Finnish life cycle for thousands of years—and, at the dawn of the third millennium, it still is, both in Finland, with its 2.2 million saunas for 5.2 million people (in 2004), and among expatriate and emigrant Finns.

Saunas...