The Politics of Sacred Places: A View from Israel-Palestine

by Nimrod Luz

The Politics of Sacred Places is a study of the socio-political dimensions of sacred sites in Israel-Palestine, drawing on over 20 years of in-depth ethnographic research which introduces cutting-edge theories on secularization, struggles for recognition, and diversity issues.

This book focuses on contemporary sacred sites and their socio-political meanings for minorities within a hegemonic and a secularizing state-system. It argues that sacred places provide a space that is less scrutinized by the state and where alternative visions of the socio-political may be produced.

A plethora of sites and case studies are examined, including the rural shrine of Maqam abu al-Hijja in the lower Galilee, the Mosque of Hassan Bek in the heart of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and the most disputed sacred place in the region, the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem. These sites are explored through mostly a phenomenological lens and in various contexts, from the individual body to the global.

This book offers a critical-analytical study of the socio-political aspects of sacred sites in contemporary societies within the broader understanding of scale and the spatial turn in the study of religion.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1350295728
• ISBN13: 9781350295728
• Release Date: October 2023
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"