Damascus, Dearborn, Rome, Vienna?

July 1st, 2012 by Charles Cameron

The beginning of Christendom, is, strictly, at a point out of time. A metphysical trigonometry finds it among the spiritual Secrets, at the meeting of two heavenward lines, one drawn from Bethany along the Ascent of the Messias, the other from Jerusalem against the Descent of the Paraclete. That measurement, the measurement of eternity in operation, of the bright cloud and the rushing wind, is, in effect, theology.

And the title essay of Guy Davenport‘s book The Geography of the Imagination should give us a clue that confusion as to what exactly is where is not solely the province of prophets and their interpreters. In a memorable sentence about the American artist Grant Wood, he writes:

If Van Gogh could ask, “Where is my Japan?” and be told by Toulouse-Lautrec that it was Provence, Wood asked himself the whereabouts of his Holland, and found it in Iowa.

**

Photo credits:

Damascus: Roberta F under CC BY-SA 3.0

Vatican: Sébastien Bertrand under CC BY 2.0

Istanbul: Preference-events & elsewhere

Vienna: Canaletto, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien via Wikipedia

Cordoba: Timor Espallargas under CC BY-SA 2.5

**

So. Where is Zion / Jerusalem?

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Posted in America, Charles Cameron, christianity, complexity, Geography, Islam, italy, Religion, scriptures, syria, Uncategorized | 1 comment

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  1. Michael Robinson:

    July 1st, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    So. Where is Zion / Jerusalem?   
    .
    One seeming Trollopian answer, the Deanery of a Royal Peculiar — Westminster Abbey, the Jerusalem chamber. 

    In front of this fireplace took place what is perhaps the best known event in the room’s history: the death of King Henry IV. In 1413 the King was planning to go to the Holy Land, and when praying at St Edward’s Shrine in the Abbey he was taken ill, apparently with a stroke. He was brought to the Abbot’s house and laid by the fire where he recovered consciousness. King Henry asked where he was and was told ‘Jerusalem’. The chronicle relates that the King realized he was going to die because it had been prophesied that he would die in Jerusalem. In Henry IV, Part II, Shakespeare tells this story of the King’s death and also has Prince Henry trying on the crown while his father lay dying. …” 

    It hath been prophesied to me many years,
    I should not die but in Jerusalem;
    Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land:
    But bear me to that chamber; there I’ll lie;
    In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.

    Henry IV, part 2, 4:5