The Constructions of Ancient Space Seminar ran as a joint project of the AAR and SBL from 2000-2005, the only cross-society venture of its time. For the first time in the development of biblical studies, participants in the seminar attempted to foreground and critically analyze space with the same theoretical nuance that biblical scholars have traditionally devoted to history. This volume, first, collects five papers focused on biblical cities, and especially Jerusalem. The female personification of Zion allows for, among other things, a specifically feminist slant on spatiality theory. Whereas these essays begin with cities as material realities, the second part of the volume offers two essays that begin with the imagined spaces of apocalyptic literature, though these two are shown to have deep connection to actual lived space. The final essay moves outside the biblical canon to examine real and imagined space in Pure Land Buddhism.

Author Biography

Claudia V. Camp is Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University and was on the steering committee of the Seminar. She is currently co-general editor of the LHBOTS series, as well as the author or editor of 4 books and numerous articles. Jon Berquist is senior academic editor at Westminster John Knox Press and was the co-chair of the Constructions of Ancient Space Seminar. He is the author or editor of 7 books and numerous articles.