Abraham the Settler, Jesus the Refugee: &lt;em&gt;Contemporary Conflict and Christianity on the Road to Bethlehem&lt;/em&gt;

Feldman, Jackie

doi:10.2979/histmemo.23.1.62

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Feldman 2011;Shapiro 2008). Thus, in the City of David (Paz), the Palestinians of Silwan, when not studiously ignored, are depicted by Israeli settler guides as extraneous to biblical history; they are a hindrance to the process of revelation of the past (concealing the cistern of Jeremiah under mounds of garbage) and, ultimately, to the biblical prophecy of return and redemption, as exemplified by the JewishIsraeli settlers of the City of David.…”

Section: Holy Lands-place Practice Perspectives Materialitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11 Some Holy Land pilgrims employ references to sacred texts or morally loaded religious language in support of one party to the political conflict (Belhassen 2009;Bowman 1992;Feldman 2011;Shapiro 2008), but more often pilgrims seek communion and meaning while remaining oblivious to the struggle (see Kaell's article, this volume). Pastors, guides, tour itineraries, group rituals, and the space of the tour bus can often create the 'environmental bubble' (E. Cohen 1972) that enables them to stay that way.…”

Section: Religious and National Sacred Spaces-contestation And Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Zilberman 2012). Sacred sites, especially in Jerusalem, were critical to forming the national identity of both peoples (Friedland and Hecht 1999: 214), and both the Hamas/Islamic jihad and the Temple Mount Faithful Movement have orchestrated pilgrimage as a manifestation of presence, a reclamation of territory and legitimacy from the impure national-religious other (Breger et al 2012a: 5).11 Some Holy Land pilgrims employ references to sacred texts or morally loaded religious language in support of one party to the political conflict (Belhassen 2009;Bowman 1992;Feldman 2011;Shapiro 2008), but more often pilgrims seek communion and meaning while remaining oblivious to the struggle (see Kaell's article, this volume). Pastors, guides, tour itineraries, group rituals, and the space of the tour bus can often create the 'environmental bubble' (E. Cohen 1972) that enables them to stay that way.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Introduction: Contested Narratives of Storied Places—the Holy Lands

Feldman¹

2014

Religion and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ABSTRACT:The articles in this special section on pilgrimage and the Holy Lands provide a wide range of perspectives on the practice, representation, and production of sacred space as expressions of knowledge and power. The experience of space of the pilgrim and the politically committed tourist is characterized by distance, impermanence, desire, contestation, and the entwinement of the material and the spiritual. The wealth of historical Christian and Western narratives/images of the Holy Land, the short duration of pilgrimage, the encounter with otherness, the entextualization of sites, and the semiotic nature of tourism all open a gap between the perceptions of pilgrims and those of 'natives' . Although the intertwining of symbolic condensation, legitimation, and power makes these Holy Land sites extremely volatile, many pilgrimages sidestep confrontation with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as inimical to the spirit of pilgrimage. A comparative view of the practices of contemporary Holy Land pilgrims demonstrates how communitas and conflict, openness and isolation are constantly being negotiated.n KEYWORDS: conflict, Holy Land, home, materiality, narratives, performances, pilgrimage, sacred spaces, tourism Edith Turner (2005: 7145-7148) provides the following definition of pilgrimage: "A religious believer in any culture may sometimes look beyond the local temple, church, or shrine, feel the call of some distant holy place renowned for miracles and the revivification of faith, and resolve to journey there. " According to this definition, the space of pilgrimage is a renowned place, a storied place. Like Mount Moriah of Isaac's sacrifice, it is "one of the mountains I shall tell thee of " (Genesis 22:2; King James translation), a distant space beyond a horizon that becomes a focus of vision and imagination, one that calls people to take to the road to journey there-a place that creates desire and, perhaps, transformation. The spiritual charge or 'magnetism' (Preston 1992) of the place, the accretion of new stories around the original ones, the transmission of those narratives in text, ritual, and iconography through generations and beyond borders-all this leads to the success of a site's career, but it also sows the seeds of conflict. The sheer number of individuals attending the site makes it a source of legitimation for believers with differing visions and a Introduction: Contested Narratives of Storied Places n 107 point of contestation between the conflicting claims of locals and visitors, laity and hierarchy, and more. Should one lapse into comfort, into taken-for-grantedness at such a place, some other will be there to remind one that claims and stories must be voiced (yet again), flags unfurled, and rituals displayed to reassert a sense of belonging to what cannot be fully possessed. Space and Place in Pilgrimage-Centers Out ThereThe study of space and place in religion has developed at a rapid pace since the spatial turn in anthropology in the 1990s, although studies of pilgrimage and the Holy Land-b...

show abstract

Section: Holy Lands-place Practice Perspectives Materialitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Religious and National Sacred Spaces-contestation And Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Introduction: Contested Narratives of Storied Places—the Holy Lands

Feldman¹

2014

Religion and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Shelves of books are devoted to the topic, often including some discussion of religious tourism (Chafets 2008;Clark 2007;Cohn-Sherbok 2006;Falk 2006;Merkley 2001;Sizer 2005;Spector 2009;Weber 2004). Scholars have ably demonstrated the political impact of tourism in the region, documenting how Israeli guides and American pastors/tour leaders articulate shared ideologies (Bajc 2007;Belhassen et al 2008;Feldman 2007Feldman , 2011Shapiro 2008;Stein 2007) and sometimes lambasting both for misrepresenting political realities (Bowman 1992). To a lesser extent, scholars have also examined 'Living Stones' tours, which are intended to inculcate pro-Palestinian sentiment (Belhassen and Ebel 2009;Clarke 2000;Feldman 2011;Sizer 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholars have ably demonstrated the political impact of tourism in the region, documenting how Israeli guides and American pastors/tour leaders articulate shared ideologies (Bajc 2007;Belhassen et al 2008;Feldman 2007Feldman , 2011Shapiro 2008;Stein 2007) and sometimes lambasting both for misrepresenting political realities (Bowman 1992). To a lesser extent, scholars have also examined 'Living Stones' tours, which are intended to inculcate pro-Palestinian sentiment (Belhassen and Ebel 2009;Clarke 2000;Feldman 2011;Sizer 2005). Overwhelmingly, these studies-indeed, nearly all studies of American Christians and Israel-focus on examples of and responses to evangelical Christian Zionism, a pro-Israel theological and political ideology (Belhassen 2009;Bowman 1991; for a European example, see Coleman 2004).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Age of Innocence: The Symbolic Child and Political Conflict on American Holy Land Pilgrimage

Kaell¹

2014

Religion and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The link between US evangelicalism, Zionism, and Middle East policy is well documented, as is its refraction through Christian tourism/pilgrimage in Israel-Palestine. However, the scholarly focus on political Zionism oversimplifies how American Christian pilgrims, mostly older women, actually construe the experience: they see contemporary politics as unrelated, and even antithetical, to the trip's spiritual goals. Building on Liisa Malkki's notion of 'tranquilizing' symbols, this article shows how pilgrims draw on broadly moral cultural tropes to quell political discussions, while still speaking in a moral register about Israelis and Palestinians. It explores how one especially powerful trope-the 'symbolic child'-is deployed during the trip. Tracing this image historically and ethnographically, I argue that pilgrims ground their reactions to Israeli-Palestinian conflict in symbolism with deep resonance for American women, which also speaks to how they engage in politics at home. n

show abstract

Tourism along the geopolitical barrier: implications of the Holy Land fence

Gelbman¹

2015

GeoJournal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abraham the Settler, Jesus the Refugee: <em>Contemporary Conflict and Christianity on the Road to Bethlehem</em>

Cited by 11 publications

References 4 publications

Introduction: Contested Narratives of Storied Places—the Holy Lands

Introduction: Contested Narratives of Storied Places—the Holy Lands

Age of Innocence: The Symbolic Child and Political Conflict on American Holy Land Pilgrimage

Tourism along the geopolitical barrier: implications of the Holy Land fence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About