Holy City, Holy Places?

Book excerpt: The Oxford Early Christian Studies series will include scholarly volumes on the thought and history of the early Christian centuries. Covering a wide range of Greek, Latin, and Oriental sources, the books will be of interest to theologians, ancient historians, and specialists in the classical and Jewish worlds. Series Editors: Rowan Williams, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at University of Oxford and Henry Chadwick, Master of Peterhouse in the University of Cambridge. The first book in The Oxford Early Christian Studies series, this study examines how Christians, whose faith is rooted historically in the Holy Land, define the precise significance of such a "holy land" in the present. Walker focuses on 325 A.D., when Constantine, the first Christian emperor, established his capital at Byzantium, allowing the Christians to uncover the Gospel sites and develop a theoretical approach to the Holy Land. He systematically compares for the first time the attitudes of two ancient writers, Eusebius of Caesarea and Cyril of Jerusalem--whose works discuss these events--revealing a new and important appreciation of Eusebius as one who, unlike Cyril, did not believe that the city in the Judean hills was truly "the city of God."