The Encyclopedia of Religion, Volume 8

Volume 8 of The Encyclopedia of Religion provides an extensive scholarly treatment of religious personalities, sacred places, communities, intellectual traditions, institutions, practices, and concepts within the alphabetical sequence from Jerusalem to Liturgy. Particularly prominent are the interconnected studies of Judaism and Christianity, including Jerusalem as sacred space, Jesus as historical and theological figure, the formation and continuity of the Jewish people, the Jewish religious calendar, the emergence of modern Jewish Studies, and the development of Jewish philosophical thought. At the same time, the volume maintains the encyclopedia’s broader comparative orientation by examining religion through history, textual traditions, ritual practice, philosophy, theology, sociology, and cultural analysis. Its concluding treatment of liturgy situates ritual action within the wider structures of religious community, authority, tradition, sacred time, and collective experience, reinforcing the encyclopedia’s understanding of religion as both a system of meaning and a lived cultural phenomenon.