Abstract
Jerusalem was and remains both a magnet for cultic devotion and an epicenter of conflict. This course
examines the political, religious, and cultural history of Jerusalem, focusing primarily on Jerusalem as a
physical and conceptual phenomenon. Beginning our story in the Bronze Age, we will explore a wide
range of sources—literary, archaeological, iconographical, cinematic, legal, etc.—that bear witness to the
remarkable transformation of a small, backwater village in the hills of Canaan to a sacred center for
millions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims today. We will study the political, physical, and conceptual
development of this urban space through its multiple destructions and reconstructions. We will also give
some attention to the culture, religion, and politics of contemporary Jerusalem, using our study of the past
to inform our consideration of the present.