Religion is one of the most important facets of the human experience. Throughout the world, considering different areas of space and moments of time, different cultures have worshiped deities in one form or another. This usually includes the active adoration of these gods, for which a certain locational frame is typically rendered especially suitable. Thomas A. Tweed, in his essay “Space” seeks to examine the nature and characteristics of religious space. In it, he proposes that these spaces are a dialectical construction between the pious and the physical location. In order to define space, he uses five different characteristics: generated, generative, differentiated, kinetic and interrelated. Of these, the latter three will be the focus of the present essay, which will provide their definition and use them to examine different sections of the Bible. As many people know, one of the most important spaces in this influential text is Jerusalem, which is presented as a city in the Promised Land to Abraham and his descendants. Therefore, it is especially notable in order to exemplify these three characteristics that Tweed has found as being significant.
The first of the characteristics is that the space is separable from the rest, “For religious practice, space is usually differentiated. Religious space is a particular space” (Tweed 117). In this case, the Judeo-Christian tradition refers to the city of Jerusalem, and the nation of Israel. This is one of the most important and recurrent places in all of the Bible. Due to the fact that it refers to a city, one can infer that there are boundaries that may be easily drawn with respect to its surroundings.
Usually, these places become religious because they have some special characteristics. According to Tweed, “‘differentiated’ means imaginatively figured and/or sensually encountered locales that are deemed more or less ‘special,’ ‘singular,’ or ‘set apart’” (118). These places are not like the rest in the eyes of believers. “Jerusalem — built as a city that is bound firmly together. To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD” (New Revised Standard Bible Psalms 122:3-4). The Psalms give this city the distinction of being a strong and blessed place.
One of the most important aspects of religion is the journey that people undertake to truly live it, as well as the one its founders had to endure. Tweed states that “religions are about dwelling and crossing, about finding a place and moving across space” (118). In fact, Jerusalem is an important part of the Promised Land that results from a pact that God makes with Abraham.
This city was the prize that God offered to Abraham after having him endure a series of challenges, all of which he handled with great faith and abnegation. Perhaps the most famous of these was his acceptance to offer one of his most prized beings up for sacrifice. God tells Abraham, “‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains’” (Genesis 22:2). This would obviously be almost impossible for any loving father, but Abraham does it anyways. At the end, he does not do it because an angel tells him that God has seen enough of his devotion, asking him to sacrifice an animal instead. “So Abraham called that place "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided" (Genesis 22:14). This forever sealed a beautiful pact between God and Abraham, which proliferated to his descendants, which included the Promised Land, where they would reign with God by their side to guide and defend them.
Thus, one can see that Jerusalem is an important religious place for many reasons. Two of the most important are that it was a part of the Promised Land, and that God talked to His people there. For Tweed, “some differentiated spaces might be deemed ‘religious’—by devotees and/or by those who study them—to the extent they meet two criteria: at that site humans have appealed to suprahuman forces [] and imagined an ultimate horizon” (119). There are many supernatural forces at play in Jerusalem. God talks to His people there, and constantly helps them, including them win battles that would seem absurd to even try to fight. Furthermore, it was the end of the Jewish people in their many journeys, as this was always the home where their God truly nurtured them.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of Jerusalem is that it is kinetic. “Spaces are processes, not things. Propelled along by natural-cultural flows, they change over time” (Tweed 120). For this author, a space’s history is very important. As stated above, Jerusalem has many appearances in the Old Testament, complying with the characteristic that “worship space has a history” (Tweed 120). A religious place “connects to other sites and events” (Tweed 120), making it “tranlocative and transtemporal” (Tweed 121). When a person goes to a religious place, he or she is not just living the present moment, but recalling those important events that have happened there as well.
Therefore, it is important to study the history of Jerusalem, including who lived there. An important part of the descendants of Abraham, and ascendants of Jesus Christ, passed through this city. For example, King David “reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years” (2 Samuel 5:5).
Nevertheless, Jerusalem also represents a place of great fertility for the Jewish people. The heritage that this place has comes from Abraham. This is evidenced in Genesis 20-24, where one can read the great family line that started with him. This makes Jerusalem important because it “recalls the homeland and signals ethnic identity” (Tweed 121). Furthermore, “in Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives; and more sons and daughters were born to David” (2 Samuel 5:13). One can see that there is a long tradition of people being born with relation to Jerusalem.
Furthermore, Jerusalem also has history as a place of worship. Numerous significant Bible characters made sacrifices to the Lord there, including King David. “They brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the LORD” (2 Samuel 6:17). After hearing that the Ark of the Covenant brought good luck to he who held it, King David took it to his side in Jerusalem. “‘The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.’ So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obededom to the city of David with rejoicing” (2 Samuel 6:12). Knowing that the Lord was in his presence, he proceeded to shower Him with gifts in the form of sacrifices. This sacrificial and venerable nature of Jerusalem in one of the most important parts of its history.
Furthermore, Solomon built an important temple there, calling it the House of the Lord. “The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high” (1 Kings 6:2). This was a huge, towering structure covered with gold, which would please God. “Next he overlaid the whole house with gold, in order that the whole house might be perfect; even the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold” (1 Kings 6:22). The idea was for this temple to be perfect in order to please the Lord. Therefore, it represented a lot of effort, money and power.
Obviously, this also was a great display of power. For Tweed, “political processes, social relations, and economic forces mark religious spaces, and, therefore, they are sites where power is negotiated as meaning is made” (Tweed 121). Not only does this place hold religious significance, but it also demonstrated the money and strength that this people had.
This is another one of the most important characteristics of a religious place according to Tweed: interrelatedness. According to this author, a religious place does not represent an isolated site of devotion, but also implies a confluence of different forces. These currents may display power, especially of a political, social or economic nature. This is the case of Jerusalem, which has constantly represented a place of power with respect to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, who all claim it as their own.
This may also be seen in the constant sieges, captures and obliterations across its history. This is a very important site for three of the world’s most important religions, and they are stilling fighting over it to this day. This may also be seen in the Bible; for example, King David dutifully conquers it with the aid of the Lord.
Nevertheless, his descendants then lose it due to their mischief. “How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations!” (Lamentations 1:1). Even though Jerusalem was once a great nation, its people were exiled because of their misdoings. In Lamentations, one can read that “the LORD has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions” (1:5). Therefore, keeping Jerusalem was also a sign of moral power. Not only did they have political and military power to keep it, but they also had moral correctness, as God would take it away from them when they did not act correctly.
This is important, because, according to Tweed, a religious space demonstrates the “mutual inter-causality of the biological and the cultural//and, in turn, to acknowledge that converging cultural ‘streams’—political, social, and economic—impact religions” (Tweed 121). Currently, this is a site of conflict between Israel and Palestine. Jewish and Muslim people still fight over it, making it not just a site of religious importance, but also social, political and economic value.
In conclusion, one can see that the city of Jerusalem exemplifies what Thomas Tweed means with a religious place because it is differentiated, kinetic and interrelated. One can see the first of these characteristics in the fact that it is a city that is different from the rest, as it was the Promised Land for the Jewish people, where God talked and appeared to them numerous times. Furthermore, it is kinetic because it has had a vast and rich history, including being a site of fertile heritage and constant devotion to the Lord. Finally, it also is a place of power, where political and social forces are still at place today. It is incredible to see how a place stops being just a strip of land and signifies so much more.
Works Cited
The Bible: New Revised Standard Version. National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, 1989. PDF.
Tweed, T. A. “Space.” Material Religion 7.1: 116-123. PDF.
