HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2012 Program - Alumni Association ...

Rev. Patrick D. Gaffney, C.S.C., Ph.D., ’69, ’70 M.A.,
’73 M.Div.
Associate Professor, Anthropology; Fellow, Kroc Institute for
International Peace Studies, Kellogg Institute for International
Studies
Biography
Rev. Patrick Gaffney specializes in social and cultural anthropology with a strong interest
in religion, politics, systems of authority, social movements, language and culture, symbolic
representation, ideology, violence, conflict resolution, human rights, and ritual expressions.
He has extensive field experience in the Middle East, notably the Arab world, as well as in
the Great Lakes region of Africa. His current research concentrates on religion, violence, and
reconciliation in the context of strained ethnic relations and the breakdown of political and
economic order in central Africa. He has published The Prophet’s Pulpit: Islamic Preaching in
Contemporary Egypt, (University of California Press, 1994), and he is a co-author of Breaking
Cycles of Violence: Conflict Prevention in Interstate Crises (Kumarian, 1999). Gaffney also has
published numerous articles dealing with Islamic resurgence, ethnic conflict, and inter-religious
relations in the Middle East and central Africa.
Lecture
Understanding Jerusalem: City of Promises, Passions, and Pilgrims
All three of the world’s great monotheistic faiths–Judaism, Christianity, and Islam–revere Jerusalem as a historical center and
as a sacred symbol. But each of these traditions holds a distinctive view of why it is so important and how their claims are
justified. Although the veneration of this sacred site is very old (in fact, predating its capture by the biblical king David, who
built his capital there on Mount Zion) the nature of today’s conflict has far more recent causes. The emergence of two modern
nationalist movements, one Jewish and one Palestinian, both aspiring to create a homeland in this same territory, has led to a
protracted confrontation with its focus increasingly on the fate of this city. A heady mixture of ideology and faith has evolved and
hardened over roughly the last half century resulting in a highly volatile situation. Finding peaceful ways for Muslims and Jews
to share Jerusalem presents what is probably the greatest challenge for those who seek to resolve the Middle East conflict. This
lecture traces the main currents of the political, religious, and legal arguments that underlie this international and interreligious
contestation with special attention to the Christian presence in the Holy Land and the singular role that Christians may play to
bring a just and lasting solution to this city of peace.
44 The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2012 Program
Categories
Government, History, Social
Concerns