Jerusalem The City Of God

The saga of the city from its founding thousands of years ago to the present.

In the year 2000, Dr. Ernest Martin in his book The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot proposed that the Israelite Temples of God were not located on the Temple Mount which had been the location of the Roman Fortress of Antonia but to the south in the city of David. For the past 800 years, people were not sure of the correct location of the Israelite Temples. Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious authorities lost site of the true location of the former Israelite Temples of God that once stood in Jerusalem and suggested they had been on the Haram esh-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary although the Bible seems to indicate a different location. Jesus prophesied that not one stone of the Temple of King Herod I and its walls would be left upon another and that Jewish Jerusalem and its walls would be leveled to the ground. These predictions by Jesus have been fulfilled precisely. All stones have been taken away and used in other buildings or construction projects and this has resulted in the total obliteration of the former Temple of King Herod I and the city of Jerusalem. "'And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts', he [Jesus] said," "'As for these things which ye behold, the days will come in which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.'" (Luke 21:5-6)

Culture and Dialogue is an international peer-reviewed journal of cross-cultural philosophy and the arts that is published semi-annually both in print and electronically. The Journal seeks to encourage and promote research in the type of philosophy and theory that sees dialogue as a fundamental ingredient of cultural formations, that is to say the ways cultures become apparent and ultimately identifiable.

"A fresh and highly accessible history of the Holy Lands during the Middle Ages, revealing a rich and diverse culture and the fight to save Jerusalem from the Crusaders"--

When Emperor Constantine triggered the rise of a Christian state, he opened a new chapter in the history of Constantinople and Jerusalem. In the centuries that followed, the two cities were formed and transformed into powerful symbols of Empire and Church. For the first time, this book investigates the increasingly dense and complex net of reciprocal dependencies between the imperial center and the navel of the Christian world. Imperial influence, initiatives by the Church, and projects of individuals turned Constantinople and Jerusalem into important realms of identification and spaces of representation. Distinguished international scholars investigate this fascinating development, focusing on aspects of art, ceremony, religion, ideology, and imperial rule. In enriching our understanding of the entangled history of Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity, City of Caesar, City of God illuminates the transition between Antiquity, Byzantium, and the Middle Ages.

There is no escaping the Jerusalem of the religious imagination. Not once but three times holy, its overwhelming spiritual significance looms large over the city's complex urban landscape and the diurnal rhythms and struggles that make up its earthbound existence. Nonetheless, writes Paola Caridi, in this intimate and hard-hitting portrayal of the city, it is possible to close one's eyes and, "like the blind listening to sounds," discern the conflict and plurality of belonging that mark out the city' secular character. Jerusalem without God leads the reader through the streets, malls, suburbs, traffic jams, and squares of Jerusalem's present moment, into the daily lives of the men and women who inhabit it. Caridi brings contemporary Jerusalem alive by describing it as a place of sights and senses, sounds and smells, but she also shows us a city riven by the harsh asymmetry of power and control embodied in its lines, limits, walls, and borders. She explores a cruel city, where Israeli and Palestinian civilians sometimes spend hours in the same supermarkets, only to return to the confines of their respective districts, invisible to each other; a city memorable for its ancient stones and shimmering sunsets but dotted with Israeli checkpoints, "postmodern drawbridges," that control the movement of people, ideas, and potential attackers. Describing Jerusalem through the lenses of urban planners and politicians, anthropologists and archaeologists, advertisers and scholars, Jerusalem without God reveals a city that is as diverse as it is complex, and ultimately, argues its author, one whose destiny cannot be tied to any single religious faith, tradition, or political ideology.

An extraordinary stone box was recently discovered in Jerusalem---the bone-box of 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.' This is his story . . . It's the year A.D. 57 and Jerusalem teeters on the brink of revolt against Rome. James, leader of the Jewish Christian community, has an enemy in high places. And two very strange friends . . . Rivka Meyers is a Messianic Jewish archaeologist from California, trapped in first-century Jerusalem by a physics experiment gone horribly wrong. Ari Kazan is her husband, an Israeli physicist slowly coming to grips with his Jewish heritage---and with a man named Jesus he was raised to hate. With no way back to their own century, Rivka and Ari seek their niche in this doomed city of God. Ari applies his knowledge of physics to become an engineer, a man of honor. Rivka feels increasingly isolated in a patriarchal culture that treats women like children. She knows what's coming---siege, famine, fire. At first, her warnings earn her grudging respect as a 'seer woman.' But when one of her predictions misses, the city scorns her as a false prophet. Rivka knows that an illegal trial and execution awaits James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. Can she prevent this disaster? Will James believe her 'premonition'? Or is Ari right that Rivka's meddling in history will only . . . make matters worse?

Threshold Bible Study is a thematic Scripture series designed for both personal study and group discussion. The thirty lessons in each study may be used by an individual for daily study over the course of a month or they may be divided into six lessons per week, providing a group study of six weekly sessions. Through the spiritual disciplines of Scripture reading, study, reflection, conversation, and prayer, readers will cross the threshold to a more abundant dwelling with God. Ideal for Bible study groups, small Christian communities, parish leadership teams, adult faith formation, student Scripture-study groups, RCIA teams, catechumens and candidates, catechists and teachers. Book jacket.