CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Kulcsár, Géza |
|---|---|
| Title | Towards a Theory of Heavenly Urbanism: The Topotheology of the Two Jerusalems |
| Summary | The study of cities often deals with urbanism as an exclusively earthly, historical phenomenon. However, from the beginning of culture, there have been images and conceptions of heavenly cities in many cultures throughout the world. For Western culture and imagination, an arguably central example is the Christian notion of a Heavenly Jerusalem descending to earth at the Apocalypse. This thesis proposes the program of heavenly urbanism and undertakes a first topotheological study of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Topotheology is proposed as a transmedial methodology for investigating theological approaches to (urban) space. Here, reimagining the well-known conceptual urban triad of Henri Lefebvre, the Heavenly Jerusalem is analyzed as conceived space through exegetical texts on the Apocalypse and on the Old Testament prefigurations of the place of God on earth, from Gregory the Great to the Victorine school; as perceived space through the Apocalypse illumination tradition emerging in the Carolingian period and continued until the late Middle Ages; and as lived space through the appearance of Jerusalem on medieval maps, a cultural phenomenon reaching back to Classical sources, but representing a unique, synthetic understanding of the cosmos. Besides general conclusions on the allegorical, ecclesiological and even architectural function of the topographical and social features of the Heavenly Jerusalem, historically, a parallel trend of exegetical, illustrational and cartographical realism emerges from the multimedial study of the topotheology of the Heavenly Jerusalem put forth in present work. |
| Supervisor | Szende, Katalin; Geréby, György |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/kulcsar_geza.pdf |
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