Reading Response, Chapters 14-18

So we've reached the end of the continual saga of Jerusalem...

Or should I say that we have reached somewhat present day?

One idea that I found interesting the this reading was that the acting of making aliyah was not an idea that sprung with the Zionist movement, which is what I sort of thought was the case.  However, it makes sense.  The Jews were experiencing persecution, so they went back to holy land.  Their ancestors were once exiled from Jerusalem, but now they are returning.

However, at the same time we know that with the influx of various different leaders brings a new attitude towards certain cultural groups every time in Jerusalem.  The fate of the city lies so much on what is happening in the world at the time.  I think that sometimes we forget that the world was much more interconnected than we think it was, even without the use of technology.  I think this goes along with the idea that no belief comes without its reasoning.  Everyone may have experienced the same events, but the individual viewpoints hinge on personal opinion.

Much of what we identify with about the world is due to the influence of modernity.  This wave of intelligence did not skip over Jerusalem.  "People in Europe and the United States had lost the art of thinking in symbols and images.  Instead, they were developing a more linear, discursive mode of thought.  New ideologies, such as socialism and nationalism, were beginning to challenge the old religious convictions" (363).  Sometimes I question the strength of religion and belief.  What we know as religion is vastly different from what it would have been thought of back the time of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, etc.  However, even throughout its tumultuous history it hasn't altogether disappeared.  What is it about religion that makes it able to withstand history itself?

Today is Easter, and also the tail end of Passover.  This weekend has been a very odd weekend at Ohio State because campus was absolutely dead because everyone went home for Easter.  As I was hanging around on campus, I was thinking a lot about Easter, Passover, and what we have talked about in this class.  Today I had a thought- why is it that Christians don't celebrate Passover as well?  The divide between Christians and Jews may have become as vast as the parting of the Red Sea, but when the Jews left Egypt there was no such thing as Christianity.  Therefore meaning that Christians were also Jews at the time.  I just think that it's interesting that events in history have diverged Christianity so far away from its roots.

I think that reading Armstrong's book has been very helpful to the overall experience of this class.  I was telling the Israeli fellow at Hillel about this class, and besides being fascinated by the idea of this class, he also said that too often this conflict gets overly simplified.  We have definitely broken down the details and are not overly simplifying it, and I think that's really important.  However, what about the people that don't know the history?  How do we explain it in a fair way without taking a 10 week class to explain it?   How will the conflict be solved until we can all come to a basic understanding?  Only time will tell.