Formative Past and Formation of the Future

Formative Past and Formation of the Future

Workshop:

Ideological Constructs of Jerusalem

in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Friday September 18, 2009

General perspectives

The globalised, modern world is confronted with challenges that enquire a deeper understanding of religious identities and processes of change within religious traditions. One important aspect is the secular world’s meeting with the heritage of religious identities formed in pre-modern societies, in which topography was interpreted as sacred and history as God-willed. A focal point for pre-modern views on topography and history,common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is the city of Jerusalem. We wish to explore how the shared history of Christians, Muslims and Jews in the holy city, as well as their respective interpretations of its impact, are mutually influenced, confronted and competing in various phases of medieval and early modern history. Building an international network of scholars specialized in various historical disciplines, we intend to establish a research project whose core issues will be the notions of sacred history, sacred presence, and sacred topography, physical and spiritual, within the cultural memory of the three religious traditions. Another significant topic is the exemplary status of Jerusalem for religious, political, and artistic practices formative for religious identities, ideas and myths inherited to the modern world.

The four papers presented in this workshop offer examples of the impact of Jerusalem in the twelfth, fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. The sources considered are texts as well as material objects and originate from the peripheries of Europe (Iberia and Scandinavia) as well as from the centres (Rome, Avignon). Representing four different academic disciplines (theology, art history, literature/philology, and cultural history), we aim to overcome disciplinary boundaries and establish a common methodological basis for our project. It is our contention that a keen focus on the theoretical framework is crucial. At the same time, this is our greatest challenge. Realizing this, we welcome comments and criticisms concerning our application of theoretical perspectives and the cohesion between our individual presentations.

Abstracts of papers

Eivor A. Oftestad:

The Presence of God: Interpretation and Identity in 12th Century Rome

The twelfth century Roman theologian Nicolaus Manjacoria argued in a sermon that the presence of God at the Lateran Church superseded the presence of God at the Temple of Jerusalem. Manjacoria was one of the"Hebraists" of the time, and scholars have mainly treated him according tophilological interests in the Hebrew scripture. Following another trace, Eivor A. Oftestad argues that Manjacoria´s sermon exposes a reciprocal relationship between Christian and Jewish identity. That the Church superseded the Synagogue was a well- established toposin the Christian tradition.Manjacoria´s sermon exhibit a significant transformation of this theme inthe twelfth century, a transformation that shaped the Christian church inthe years to come.

Kristin B. Aavitsland:

Earthly and Heavenly: Visual Projections of Jerusalem in Medieval Scandinavia

In medieval Scandinavia, as elsewhere in Latin Christendom, Jerusalem was often projected visually and materially. Churches were built as replicas of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; frescoed church interiors, metal reliquaries, altar frontals and altar pieces clearly evoked the idea of Jerusalem through a number of visual and verbal rhetorical conventions. Scholars have barely questioned these projections, all in liturgical contexts, as anything but allegorical images of the Church and the eschatological kingdom of God. In her paper, Kristin Aavitsland suggests that in given cases, the allegorical interpretations have to be supplemented by an historical one, related to the Scandinavian elites´ engagement in the crusades. The establishment of an ecclesiastical structure in Scandinavia largely coincided with the crusader period, and on this background it is argued that the topos of Jerusalem and the idea of war against infidels were fundamental features of the new Christian identity of the recently converted Scandinavians.

Unn Falkeid:

Rome: Babylon or the New Jerusalem? A Political Controversy in Early Modern Europe

During the entire Middle Ages and long into modernity Rome was thrown between the bright vision of the eternal city and the dark vision of sin, deterioration and death. In the fourteenth century, during the Avignon papacy, the battle of Rome as Babylon or the New Jerusalem was again re-actualized. A strong rhetoric was elaborated; both by the defenders of the papacy in Avignon and by those who tried to convince the curia to move back to Rome. One of the main figures in these political debates was Petrarch. In her paper, Unn Falkeid will make a short reading of Petrarch’s central political texts, focusing on his defense of Rome as the New Jerusalem. The battle of Rome, with the subsequent strong defense of the city as the transferred Jerusalem and the true centre of the Christian world, is of particular interest because it gave birth to a new myth which came to transform the Western world – namely the myth of the Renaissance.

Ragnhild J. Zorgati:

Jerusalem in Granada: Identity and Memory in Times of Unrest (16th Century Iberia)

Ragnhild J. Zorgati’s paper explores the famous lead books (libros de plomo) that were discovered in Granada in the last decade of the sixteenth century. These books, written in Arabic, were at first believed to be authentic first century Christian texts, dictated by the Virgin Mary and brought from the Holy Land to Spain by the first Christian missionaries to the Iberian Peninsula. In the late sixteenth century, the lead books were considered relics and soon became the focus of intense pious devotion. Later, however, they were proven to be forgeries, probably created by the Moriscos of Granada in an attempt to establish an Arabic Christian heritage for the Moriscos of Spain. In this perspective the lead books may be said to constitute a hybrid cultural expression, combining elements from both Muslim and Christian religious traditions. Moreover, in taking the Virgin Mary as their source of authority these texts establish a connection in time and space between early Christianity in the Holy Land and post-Islamic Christianity in early modern Granada.