The Land and the Book
Biblical Studies and Imaginative Geographies of Palestine
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v4i1.71Keywords:
Imaginative Geography, travel literatureAbstract
The paper explores the ways in which the Bible has been used by European travellers and biblical scholars to construct imaginative geographies of Palestine. It is important to understand how these spatial stories work, and their continuing influence, by examining their representations and images of space that have such a profound and continuing hold on popular and scholarly understandings of Palestine. Failure to explore the critical relationship between the Land and the Book (geography and reading) runs the risk that received scholarship becomes an object of veneration or an instrument of oppression.
References
Aharoni, Y, M. Avi-Yonah, A. Rainey, Z. Safrai 2002.The Carta Bible Atlas. 4th Edition. Jerusalem: Carta.
Besant, W. 1889. Twenty-One Years’ Work in the Holy-Land: (A Record and a Summary) June 22, 1865-June 22, 1886. London: Palestine Exploration Fund.
Cormack, L. B. 1997. Charting an Empire: Geography at the English Universities, 1580-1620. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Conder, C.R. 1878. Tent Work in Palestine. 2 volumes. London: Richard Bentley and Son.
Cook, T. 1868. “Personal.” Cook’s Excursionist 25: 2.
———. 1891. Cook’s Tourist Handbook for Palestine and Syria. London: Thomas Cook.
Helgerson, R. 1992. Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writing of England. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Kark, R. 2001. “From Pilgrimage to Budding Tourism: The Role of Thomas Cook in the Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century.” in Travellers in the Levant: Voyagers and Visionaries, edited by S. Searight and M. Wagstaff, 155–174 . Durham, NC: ASTENE.
Khalidi, W. 1996. Islam, the West, and Jerusalem. Occasional Papers. Washington, DC: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
Larsen, T. 2004. Contested Christianity: The Political and Social Context of Victorian Theology. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Leighton, W.H. 1948. A Cook’s Tour to the Holy Land in 1874: The Letters of William Henry Leighton. London: F. James Publishing Company.
Nochlin, L. 1991. The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society. London: Thames and Hudson.
Rose, G. 1999. “Performing Space.’” In Human Geography Today, edited by D. Massey, J. Allen and P. Sarre, 247–259. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Said, E. 2004. Humanism and Democratic Criticism. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Shandler, J. and Wenger, B.S. 1998. Encounters with the “Holy Land”. Place, Past and Future in American Jewish Culture. Hanover, New England: National Museum of American Jewish History.
Thomson, W.M. 1888. The Land and the Book or Biblical Illustrations Drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery of the Holy Land. London: T. Nelson and Sons.
Whitelam, K.W. 2007. “Lines of Power: Mapping Ancient Israel.” In To Break Every Yoke: Essays in Honor of Marvin L. Chaney, edited by R.B. Coote and N.K. Gottwald, 40-79. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press.
forthcoming. “The Death of Biblical History.” In In Search of Philip Davies: Whose Festschrift is it Anyway?, edited by J. Rogerson and D. Burns. London: T&T Clark International.
Besant, W. 1889. Twenty-One Years’ Work in the Holy-Land: (A Record and a Summary) June 22, 1865-June 22, 1886. London: Palestine Exploration Fund.
Cormack, L. B. 1997. Charting an Empire: Geography at the English Universities, 1580-1620. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Conder, C.R. 1878. Tent Work in Palestine. 2 volumes. London: Richard Bentley and Son.
Cook, T. 1868. “Personal.” Cook’s Excursionist 25: 2.
———. 1891. Cook’s Tourist Handbook for Palestine and Syria. London: Thomas Cook.
Helgerson, R. 1992. Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writing of England. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Kark, R. 2001. “From Pilgrimage to Budding Tourism: The Role of Thomas Cook in the Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century.” in Travellers in the Levant: Voyagers and Visionaries, edited by S. Searight and M. Wagstaff, 155–174 . Durham, NC: ASTENE.
Khalidi, W. 1996. Islam, the West, and Jerusalem. Occasional Papers. Washington, DC: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
Larsen, T. 2004. Contested Christianity: The Political and Social Context of Victorian Theology. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Leighton, W.H. 1948. A Cook’s Tour to the Holy Land in 1874: The Letters of William Henry Leighton. London: F. James Publishing Company.
Nochlin, L. 1991. The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society. London: Thames and Hudson.
Rose, G. 1999. “Performing Space.’” In Human Geography Today, edited by D. Massey, J. Allen and P. Sarre, 247–259. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Said, E. 2004. Humanism and Democratic Criticism. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Shandler, J. and Wenger, B.S. 1998. Encounters with the “Holy Land”. Place, Past and Future in American Jewish Culture. Hanover, New England: National Museum of American Jewish History.
Thomson, W.M. 1888. The Land and the Book or Biblical Illustrations Drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery of the Holy Land. London: T. Nelson and Sons.
Whitelam, K.W. 2007. “Lines of Power: Mapping Ancient Israel.” In To Break Every Yoke: Essays in Honor of Marvin L. Chaney, edited by R.B. Coote and N.K. Gottwald, 40-79. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press.
forthcoming. “The Death of Biblical History.” In In Search of Philip Davies: Whose Festschrift is it Anyway?, edited by J. Rogerson and D. Burns. London: T&T Clark International.
Published
2010-06-05
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Whitelam, K. W. (2010). The Land and the Book: Biblical Studies and Imaginative Geographies of Palestine. Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 4(1), 71-84. https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v4i1.71
