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Jerusalem as a Holy City Jersualem, the city, for nearly three thousand years, has been considered to be one of the most influential and integral spiritual centers in the world for three of the largest Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Chrsitianity, and Judaism. Given Jerusalem’s rich, deep cultural connections and diverse historical and religious past, it becomes very simple to infer that this city has become sanctified and venerated to such an extent that it was and has continued to be deemed as a “sacred space,” a heavy description, that according to Mercea Eliade’s The Sacred and The Profane requires “a strong, significant space…[of certain religious or holy] structure or consistency” (Eliade 1987: 22).This …show more content…
These divine happenings have been coined as hierophanies by Eliade in his The Sacred and the Profane. The establishment of these said hierophanies are key in create an effect that works to relate the physical facets of the city with its mythical foundations. These spiritual encounters, are understood mythologically as attempts for God or a deity to connect to man on earth to provide “an absolute fixed point, a center” for spirituality (Eliade 1987: 20). Hierophanies, are thus understood to define all other space as it helps establish a point of relation, a precedent or paradigm with which all other relatable places are compared. These divine manifestations can range in Hierophanies also succeed in ascribing importance and significance to a region by “detaching… [it] from the surrounding cosmic milieu and making it qualitatively different” (Eliade 1987: 26). Doing this implies, in the context of Jerusalem and its importance, there being some inherent individuality and distinctiveness present in Jerusalem, which further allows for the rejection of the concept of the universe being composed of solely homogenous space. Non-homogenous, or heterogeneous, space, as described by Eliade, can thereafter be accepted as the manner …show more content…
Jerusalem, given that it is descrbied as the axis mundi, is ascribed a great amount of intrinsic worth and value. Much of the Bibilical texts des
Jerusalem’s uniqueness in its physical/geographical and qualitative makeup are two key points that are stressed in the aforementioned Bibilical texts that allow it to be deemed a holy land. Sanctifying a place or a space in itself is an arduous task that involves following a set of steps delineated in forming a distinction of the aforementioned space with all else that either surrounds it or is comparable to it. The creation of this sacred space, hence, directly requires a process of delineating the importance of certain tangible and intangible aspects in said region. Integral Biblical texts have demonstrated the importance of sacred spac, specifically in Jerusalem,