ABSTRACT
Jerusalem is an important city for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This is evident not only from their political and religious histories but also from the transcendent language they use to describe it. “The heavenly Jerusalem” belongs to that language of transcendence. Frequently, early Jewish and Christian descriptions of Jerusalem as a “heavenly” city overlap with other terms that give expression to transcendence that touches the world—like “paradise,” “the city of God,” “the kingdom of God,” and “this world and the world to come.” In Islamic historical and religious traditions, Jerusalem is known primarily as the point from which the Prophet’s heavenly journey begins, though it also factors into notions of creation and of the days leading up to the final judgment. Jerusalem figures prominently in the narratives of the gospels and Acts, primarily as the place where Jesus spends his last days and where his followers gather after his death.
