Jerusalem in Memory and Eschatology: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Visions of the Past and Future of Jerusalem

Investigating a range of eschatological and apocalyptic ideologies, this volume explores the connection between notions of sacred space and time in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim understandings of Jerusalem.

The recognition of Jerusalem as a holy city both unites and divides Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. While these three religious traditions share a reverence for the same ancient city, this veneration leads more often to tension and violence than to commonality and cooperation.

Each of these religions draws heavily from religious memory and eschatological prophecies, and sees Jerusalem as a site of past and future upheaval; however, the distinctions in their visions imbue Jerusalem with meanings that reinforce conflicting and contested ideologies. Offering multiple analyses of religious interpretations of the city and its sacred sites, including the Temple Mount, this volume explores these divergent visions of the remembered and anticipated Jerusalem.

Emma O’Donnell Polyakov is Assistant Professor of the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion in the Department of Gender, Diversity, and Social Justice at Merrimack College, USA. She is the author of The Nun in the Synagogue: Judeocentric Catholicism in Israel (2020) and Remembering the Future: The Experience of Time in Jewish and Christian Liturgy(2015), and the editor of Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Interreligious Hermeneutics (2018).