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Article: The Land Called Holy: Palestine in Christian History and Thought.
- Article from:
- Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ)
- Article date:
- June 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Association of Arab-American University Graduates. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It is commonplace that Palestine is sacred territory for the three major West Asian religions. How it became sacred for Christians is the subject of Robert L. Wilken's valuable study.
The Land Called Holy encompasses two interwoven histories. One is about an idea: how Palestine became a holy land - the Holy Land - in the minds of Christians. The other is about piety, the rise of land-based devotion: daily worship at churches built on holy sites, solemn ceremonies of pilgrims, and religiously motivated immigration from many lands.
Wilken's first four chapters trace Jewish ideas of the Land of Israel, as well as early Christian writing about Jerusalem. The next ...