Jerusalem

Abstract

The limited excavations at Saflulim demonstrate that, together with Rosh Horesha, it functioned as some form of Negev Late Natufian residential basecamp or, more plausibly, aggregation site, with substantial and durable architectural features present. Together they represent a single site complex forming, by far, the largest Natufian (and indeed Epipalaeolithic) site documented in the Negev to date. Without doubt this is in large measure accounted for by the particular phytogeographic location of the site in the highest reaches of the central Negev Highlands during a period when environmental conditions were more favourable and a wider array of vegetal resources were available than at present.

The recovered assemblages increase the data base for ongoing technological, typological, stylistic and functional comparative studies of the Late Natufian in the Negev. In particular they should provide some indications as to the degree of variability between different types of site in the various phytogeographic zones within the region. Though not entirely conclusive, the newly acquired data appear to bolster the likelihood that previously reported assemblages from the adjacent site of Rosh Horesha are at least partially mixed.     

Adventus in Jerusalem: the Palm Sunday celebration in Latin Jerusalem

Themes of continuity and innovation in the rituals of the church of Jerusalem in the early twelfth century, following the crusader conquest of the city, are examined with a focus on the Latin Palm Sunday procession. Based on the Ordinal of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was produced for the use of the patriarch and the religious community of the Holy Sepulchre, and which contains the yearly ritual cycles and major processional celebrations, the study reveals the original characteristics of the Jerusalem liturgy, as well as its components incorporated from pre-crusade practice. It speculates on the earliest organisers of the liturgy, their identity and the sources of their inspiration, as well as the orientations of the early monastic community in Frankish Jerusalem.     

Longing for the New Jerusalem

Abstract

The following article is concerned with the changing nature of religion in Northern Europe. It considers first the concepts of "believing without belonging" and "vicarious religion," pointing out the limitations of each and drawing extensively on previously published work. The following section discusses in more detail a shift that is currently taking place—that is from forms of religion that are imposed or inherited to forms of religion that are primarily chosen. Particular attention is paid to the implications of these changes for the rites of passage. The final section reflects on the theological consequences of these changes, first with a more detailed discussion of notion of vicariousness and second by examining the complex relationship between the public and the private in religious life. It argues that forms of religion that are chosen rather than inherited have implications for the public as well as the private sphere. They are ill-served by an over-rigorous application of the concept of privatization.