Sanctity of Time and Space in Tradition and Modernity

Alberdina Houtman, Ph.D. (1995), Utrecht University, studied Semitic Languages and Cultures at the University of Groningen and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is research fellow in Rabbinical Studies at the University of Kampen and has published a monograph and several articles on early rabbinics. Marcel Poorthuis, studied Judaic studies, theology and philosophy. In 1992 he published his dissertation Het gelaat van de Messias (The Face of the Messiah), on the Talmud commentaries of the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Together with Chana Safrai he edited the book The Centrality of Jerusalem (Kampen,1996).Joshua Schwartz, Ph.D. (1981) in Jewish History, Hebrew University, is Director of the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies and Professor of Historical Geography of Ancient Israel at Bar-Ilan. He has published extensively on the historical geography of ancient Israel and Jerusalem.

Time and space can take on a sacred nature in both Judaism and Christianity accompanied by a permanent critical attitude towards the sacred. Conceptions of sacredness imply a conception of community and of society at large. This study investigates the different attitudes toward sacred time and space from an interdisciplinary perspective, ranging from the Biblical period through Qumran, Patristics, Rabbinics, archaeology and theology to modern and even to post-modern rituals. This approach offers a fascinating insight into both the common heritage of Judaism and Christianity and their mutual differences.