Nostalgic for the Golden Age

https://bonniewilks.com/2009/12/16/sunrise-glow-over-jerusalem/

In the first chapter of Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, Armstrong mentions the phrase "nostalgia for paradise," on page 10. Armstrong writes this in reference to people searching for sacred spaces and how most religions and people when searching are truly just looking for the place where the "golden age" occurred. The golden age would be where the followers could quickly communicate with their god and live in peace. The wording in the phrase pointed out is what really pulls me in. I have never heard or seen anyone frame a religious experience like this. I tend to not really understand religious ideas or beliefs, but the way Armstrong so eloquently described this experience really spoke to me. The people searching for a place that grounds them and makes them feel closer to their creator is based on nostalgia. They are longing to feel as close as possible to the higher diety they devote their life to. 

As we discussed during class, sacred spaces can vary between different groups of people. Some of the examples we came up with were churches, homes, the outdoors, and graveyards. Different people with different beliefs have different definitions of what a sacred space is. In Armstrong’s book, he proposes a unifying concept for sacred space. He states that “almost every culture has a myth of a golden age at the dawn of time, “ on page 10. Every culture or religion has a story that describes a time when everything was perfect or almost perfect. 

This reminds me of Jerusalem as a whole. In the movie we watched last week and all the discussions we’ve been having during class, the notion of the city being a highly diverse place with not a lot of overlap or cultures comes to mind. Even with all of the separation in ideals and beliefs, all three of the major religions view the shared land as important to their religion. All those people believe that Jerusalem is their sacred space. The people coming to Jerusalem felt that they were in the sacred space that was the golden age of their religion. That is so beautiful to me. In today’s day and age, people travel all across the globe to visit Jerusalem because they feel, like how Armstrong wrote, nostalgic for their promise land or their ultimate sacred space.