The late Jiddu Krishnamurti once said that religion is frozen thought, and that out of it one builds temples. The implication is that a place is needed for this solidified belief. One may thus pray, meditate or do whatever in large social structures such as cathedrals, tabernacles, shrines or mosques, or in smaller spaces that one has discovered or created for oneself.
Though public prayer, as in a church, is said to have declined in some countries, it is arguable that private prayer has increased. That, at any rate, is the argument of this collection of photographs of retreats that have been contrived in Britain and the United States.
Despite "the commercial and materialistic thrust of our world today," religion is thriving in that it has been, as it were, privatized. That is the belief of the author of this book, and one might add that, if that is true, it is not despite this thrust but because of it.