the baptism site

On the way to the Dead Sea, we went to the site where Jesus was baptized. It's a really interesting experience, visiting someone else's pilgrimage site. Particularly when it's so austere, so unremarkable in its own right: no gilded mosaics or grand arching ceilings.

The sanctification of space is intriguingly mysterious.

And I did experience it as sacred space--because it is sacred space, because space becomes sacred when humans sanctify it. (Obviously, this is in contrast to several prominent conceptions of sacred space.) But there was this disconnect, of course, because it was someone else's sacred space. Even as I empathized and appreciated, I conscious of how it categorically could not resonate with me--it felt much like being a guest; it seemed like the most appropriate role for me, so I feel good about it. There's always that tension between understanding and evaluation, between empathy and ethics. At times, being a religious religious-studies major embodies this tension.

We did not visit Mt. Nebo, from whence Moses looked upon the Promised Land, although word on the street is that it's holy to both Muslims AND Christians.