AN N EA 10W Lecture 2: The Biblical Myths of Jerusalem's Founding
7/2/2018 OneNote Online
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Wk 2: Jerusalem as Religious Space
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 3:32 PM
Jerusalem as Religious Space: The Biblical Myths of Jerusalem's Founding
Terms we should know:
Jebus- Canaanite name of Jerusalem
Moriah- biblical name for Temple Mount
City of David- southern portion of eastern hill
Temple Mount- rectangular structure on the northern portion of the eastern hill
Watershed Route- NS Road through the central highlands of Canaan
Emile Durkheim- French sociologist
•Represents starting point of way people talk about religion as an elemental, organizational part of society
•What is the role of religion in society, culture?
•"religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden"
•Core element of religion is distinction between sacred and profane space and things
Mircea Eliade- one of Durkheim's students
•Wanted to answer HOW people came to view certain spaces as "sacred"
•Foundational concept is hierophany or "manifestation of sacred" or "revelation of the divine" (Armstrong, 9)
○Hierophany leads to the belief that a certain locale is an "axis Mundi"
•Universal pillar that connects heaven, earth, and the underworld
Critique:
•Left little room to discuss the way humans discuss religious space materially
•Binary view: human vs unholy, sacred vs unsacred
•Binary dichotomy does not account for "messiness of human society"
Therefore, new definitions have developed…
Thomas Tweed "Space"
•Differentiated
○Religious space exists along a spectrum of spaces (cannot have binary view that Eliade and Durkheim used)
○There is fluidity to definition of space
•Kinetic
○Religion and space have historical dimensions
○Avoids problematic tendency to reduce religion to 'belief'
○ Space is a fixed point where history can be visualized (Kinetic: Tweed)
•Interrelated
○Religion interacts with and is ultimately inseparable from political, social, and economic forces
○ One cannot separate the political, economic, and social influences from a religious space
○ space is a convergence and cannot be purely sacred or secular
•The perception of "sacred-ness" often has little to do with belief
○Religious space has a long, formidable history; value does not only come from its religious connotations
•Space is intimately connected with human memory
•Why is Jerusalem differentiated in the bible
○Repository of a cultural memories in the city
Jerusalem in Ancient Israelite Literature
•Earliest literature describing Jerusalem written by scribes who lived in Jerusalem ca. 1000-300 BCE ("ancient Israelite scribes")
•Written to promote kings of Jerusalem, temple of Israel's God (Yahweh), and priesthood
•Later adopted by Jewish and Christian communities and canonized as a collection (the Bible)
Ancestral Narratives (Genesis 12-50 - the migrations of Abraham)
•Abraham (originally Abram)
○Ancestor of people group called "Israel"
○Travelled along the watershed highway, building altars
•The appearances of God to Abraham constitutes what Eliade would call a hierophany
○The altars built by Abraham marks an Axis Mundi
• Geography of Canaan (Israel) does not suggest one sacred mountain, but several
○ Geography of southern Levant does not suggest a natural "center"
○ Several mountainous areas suggest multiple "sacred" locations
Genesis 22: 1-2 Mount Moriah
• In lens of Eliade:
○ Description of a classic hierophany
○ Moriah is a portal to a different world, where one can experience the divine
○ Appearance of angel marks place as an axis mundi
Reading assignment due Thur
Get started on first paper
Discussion Question
Why and how do people form attachments to places?
