This year in Jerusalem

Jerusalem is not just a city, it is a state of mind. It represents an almost metropolitan version of the three-thousand year story of western civilization. Yet, while it might seem strangely disconnected from the modern world, it is at the same time ground zero for so many of the 21st century's problems. Perhaps today, as it has been so many times before in history, as Jerusalem goes, so goes the world.   This is the central pillar of Simon Sebag Monetifiore's Jerusalem: The Biography

My conversation with Simon Sebag Monetfiore:

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Oh Jerusalem

Normally great cities change. Even Paris and New York have gone through radical transformations. Jerusalem it seems, has remained true to its roots, troubled and seeped in violence though it may be. Perhaps, it is because the city has become a kind of religious and philosophical Rorschach test, on to which we project so many of our dreams fears and hopes? Is there really some special power to Jerusalem, as that "shinning city on the hill," or is it simply its historical context that gives it its unique power? James Carroll, the brilliant former Catholic Priest, former chaplain at Boston University, and author of Constantine's Sword, An American Requiem and House of War, reaches deep into the history of Jerusalem to give us both the real and the fantasy City.

My conversation with James Carroll:

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