PaperDue

Essay Topic Hub

Jerusalem
Essays

590+ paper examples, study guides & outlines

590 papers

UG & Grad levels

Free to browse

What is Jerusalem?

Jerusalem occupies a singular place in religious studies because it functions simultaneously as a historical city, a theological symbol, and a contested sacred space for multiple faith traditions. Courses in biblical studies, world religions, church history, and Jewish studies all return to Jerusalem as a central subject because understanding it is inseparable from understanding Christianity, Judaism, and the broader history of monotheistic religion. Its presence throughout the Old and New Testaments, its role in the life of early Christians and Jewish communities, and its significance as the site of the Temple make it one of the most layered topics a religion student can explore.

Papers on this topic approach Jerusalem from several distinct angles. Some focus on its biblical foundations, tracing the city's role through the Old Testament or examining specific texts such as the Gospel of Luke. Others take a historical perspective, analyzing figures like King David or investigating events such as the First Crusade and Pope Urban II's call to reclaim the city. Comparative and thematic approaches also appear, including studies of Jewish affairs in Jerusalem, the composition of the Mishnah, and how early Christian identity was shaped by its relationship to the city and the Temple.

A strong essay on Jerusalem requires a clearly bounded thesis — addressing the city as a whole across all periods is too broad. Evidence drawn from primary sources, including biblical texts and historical accounts, carries the most weight. The most common pitfall is treating Jerusalem as either purely symbolic or purely political without acknowledging how deeply those dimensions are intertwined in the scholarship.

590 papers

Sort by:

Social Psychology: Obedience, Conformity, and Prejudice

Social psychology is a very broad field that takes in the many varieties of group dynamics, perceptions and interactions. Its origins date back to the late-19th Century, but it really became a major field during and after the Second World War, in order to explain phenomena like aggression, obedience, stereotypes, mass propaganda, conformity, and attribution of positive or negative characteristics to other groups. Among the most famous social psychological studies are the obedience experiments of Stanley Milgram and the groupthink research of Irving Janus (Feenstra Chapter 1).

Thesis Doctorate

John 5:1-9: Jesus, the Paralyzed Man, and Outsider Identity

At first glance the text of John 5:1-9 is relatively simple and straightforward: Jesus is again in Jerusalem for a festival, and he stops by a pool that has healing properties. There he meets a sick old man who has been…

Thesis Doctorate

Exegesis of Daniel 9:24–27: Messianic and Eschatological Views

This paper gives an exegesis of Daniel 9:24-27, examining the three principal interpretations of the text as well as others that have arisen over time. It concludes with an explanation of why a synthesis of the traditional and the eschatological views provides the most comprehensive reading of the text in terms of fulfillment.

Research Paper Doctorate

The First Intifada: Palestinian Unity and Fragmentation

On December 9, 1987, 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs living in areas conquered and occupied by Israel after the Six-Day war in 1967 began an uprising (Goell, 1989). Called the "intifada," and later the "first intifada,"…

Essay Doctorate

Christianity, Politics, and the Church: A Historical Overview

this is a five page paper about turning points in Christianity. The five page paper refers to St. Augustine's City of God, Clovis's The Chronicle of St. Denis, Gregory VII. Dictatus Papae, 1090, Martin Luther's Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, 1520, and John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Paper Undergraduate

The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark: A Critical Review

Dennis McDonald's The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark (2000) is a book that was always guaranteed to upset orthodox Christian theologians and biblical literalists and fundamentalists everywhere, since its main thesis held that the author of the first gospel used the Iliad and the Odyssey as literary models. He compares Mark to the apocryphal Acts of Andrew, a Gnostic book, and describes it as a "hypotext" that "relies somehow on a written antecedent" (McDonald, p. 2). Specifically, Mark used Books 22 and 24 of the Iliad as models for the death and burial of Jesus, in which Achilles brutally kills Hector and then releases the body to his father, King Priam of Troy. Hector's soul went to Hades and never returned, but of course Jesus was resurrected on the third day, even if his rather dim disciples in Mark failed to recognize him initially.

Research Paper Undergraduate

Jewish Diaspora, Zionism, and the Founding of Israel

Zionism originally formed in the 19th century as a movement intent on the creation of a place where Jews from all over the world could live and cultivate their culture and religion. However, due to both World Wars, the situation arose that led to the actual creation of a Jewish nation, the state of Israel. But once the state of Israel was established, Zionism had to adapt itself and instead of focusing on the creation of a Jewish nation, had to focus on the continued existence of that nation, its people, religion, and culture.

Paper Doctorate

Constantine and Eusebius: Christianity's Rise in Rome

There are many great rulers in history, among them men and women of great fortitude, power, allegiance, wealth and intrigue. Yet, there are few who ring more interesting to a modern reader than Constantine I, who is widely held as the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity and spread its favor across the then known world. This work will briefly discuss Constantine I (27 February 272–22 May 337 AD) and his only remaining biographer Eusebius (263-339 AD) who was really writing the history of the church rather than on the greatness of a single human leader. The work will first briefly explore who these men were, according to history then it will discuss their relationship to one another, the impact that relationship had on each and finally how that relationship influenced the enculturation of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Collective Memory Between Jewish and Muslim Turks

Assmann (2001) writes that sociologist Maurice Halbwachs and Aby Warburg, art historian developed two theories of "collective or social memory." (p.125) Assmann states of collective or social memory that the "…specific character that a person derives from belonging to a distinct society and culture is not seen to maintain itself for generations as a result of phylogenetic evolution, but rather as a result of socialization and customs." (2001, p.125) The cultural survival of this group or type of what Assmann refers to as a "pseudo-species" is stated to be a "function of cultural memory." (2001, p.125) This study examines the construction of a collective cultural memory in Turkey by present day Jewish and Islamic Turks.

Research Paper Doctorate

Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Dunn, Scripture, and Eastern Orthodoxy

James Dunn's book: The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a traditional exegesis of the religious phenomenon which has been relegated in modern times to the Pentecostal Christian churches.

← Prev 1 2 3 … 9 59 Next →