Jerusalem (religious aspects) (original) (raw)

ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON JERUSALEM

Few cities around the world transcend their physical boundaries the way Jerusalem does. As the spiritual capital of monotheism, Jerusalem has ancient roots and legacies that have imposed themselves on its inhabitants throughout the centuries. In modern times, and aside from all the religious complexities, Jerusalem has become enmeshed in the Palestinian and Israeli national identities and political aspirations, which have involved and dragged into the fray other actors from around the world. Consisting of 35 chapters from leading specialists, the Routledge Handbook on Jerusalem provides a broad spectrum of studies related to the city and its history. Beginning with a historical overview starting from the end of the Bronze age, the chapters go on to look at a range of topics including: • religious symbolism and pilgrimage • religious and social relations • social and economic history • architecture and archaeology • maps • eschatology • art • politics. By bringing together contributions from leading scholars of different disciplines, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the various layers that make up this unique and special city. It will appeal to students and scholars of Middle East Studies, religion and cultural history, and anyone with an interest in learning more about Jerusalem.

The historical hardships of Jerusalem as a holy city

MEPEI Website, 2024

In the context of the 2021 Israeli-Palestine crisis during which civilians were killed or severely wounded on both sides, that reminds the world of past attrocities, Jerusalem remains a central point of contention in scholar, political and public discourse. The dispute related to who and how should own, rule or inhabit the city represents probably one of the oldest unanswered set of questions and the odds to obtain definitive answers in the near future are not at the horizon yet. This article does not aim to provide such answers, but it will reassess the historical trajectory of this place and hardships it had to overcome despite being considered a holy city in the three major monoteistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). The preliminary assesment of major historical accounts and specialist literature on this topic, which is immense, indicates fundamentally different perspectives on this city, its history and particularly the meaning of various historical events. Furthermore, the invocation of religious texts-not accepted in nowadays scientific proceedings as historical accounts-with the purpose of asserting various rights or justifying grave, large-scale, armed aggressions that the world considers a problem of the past, becomes an ambiguous paradigm in the broadly accepted framework of modern international relations. The preliminary assessment has also indicated that the dichotomy between Jerusalem as a geographical location, a concept variable in time, and the religious concepts associated with Jerusalem that have been pursued by certain followers of one of the three monotheistic religions mentioned above has given birth to many conflicts among various groups throughout history.

From shared Muslim−Jewish holy sites and feasts to exclusivity claims, the case of Jerusalem

The Religious Studies Review, 2023

Below I discuss two models of Jerusalem's holy sites and religious costumes: joint Jewish-Muslim shrines and the divided one. The joint model emerged in the late 19 th century in direct relation to endorsing modernization and developing local patriotism. The escalating Zionist-Palestinian conflict since the late 1920s produced the separated holy sites model. Jerusalem is the arena where the two models expressed forcefully due to its high religious status and national centrality.

Jerusalem. A Brief History. Sample chapters

Jerusalem. Brief History, 2018

Jerusalem - A Brief History shows how Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scriptures confer providential meaning to the fate of the city and how modern Jerusalem is haunted by waves of biblical fantasy aiming at mutually exclusive status-quo rectification. It presents the major epochs of the history of Jerusalem’s urban transformation, inviting readers to imagine Jerusalem as a city that is not just sacred to the many groups of people who hold it dear, but as a united, unharmed place that is, in this sense, holy. Jerusalem - A Brief History starts in modern Jerusalem—giving readers a look at the city as it exists today. It goes on to tell of its emergence as a holy city in three different ways, focusing each time on another aspect of the biblical past. Next, it discusses the transformation of Jerusalem from a formerly Jewish temple city, condemned to oblivion by its Roman destroyers, into an imperially sponsored Christian theme park, and the afterlife of that same city under later Byzantine and Muslim rulers. Lastly, the book returns to present day Jerusalem to examine the development of the modern city under the Ottomans and the British, the history of division and reunification, and the ongoing jostling over access to, and sovereignty over, Jerusalem’s contested holy places. Offers a unique integration of approaches, including urban history, the rhetoric of power, the history of art and architecture, biblical hermeneutics, and modern Middle Eastern Studies Places great emphasis on how Jerusalem is a real city where different people live and coexist Examines the urban transformation that has taken place since late Ottoman times Utilizes numerous line drawings to demonstrate how its monumental buildings, created to illustrate an alliance of divine and human power, are in fact quite ephemeral, transient, and fragile Jerusalem - A Brief History is a comprehensive and thoughtful introduction to the Holy City that will appeal to any student of religion and/or history.

Jerusalem in the Context of Comparative Religion A Selected Bibliography

2023

The big exposure and high polarity of publications about Jerusalem is a serious problem especially for beginners, e.g. students and young researchers, who often fail to distinguish sufficiently between scientifically supported and impartial studies and texts of ideological propaganda many times written in the language of crypto-science. Another problem is also a huge corpus of various texts regarding Jerusalem. Indeed, this bibliography Is far from being fully comprehensive with regard to this extensively elaborated topic on about this extensively elaborated topic but it has aimed to keep up with within the realms of possibility, a representative and balanced one. The main goal is to offer a balanced and representative and a relatively comprehensive selection of secondary scientific texts (especially monographs, books, edited volumes, journal articles, bibliographies and academic theses) that were written about Jerusalem, without including the primary sources.