Category: Religion

The Strange Speech of Sultan Valad

The Strange Speech of Sultan Valad

Michael Pifer— Sometime in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, a Sufi poet named Sultan Valad was trying his hardest to get out of delivering a public sermon. He… READ MORE

People of the Blog

People of the Blog

Nathaniel Deutsch and Michael Casper— When the Yiddish-language Hasidic online chat forum Kave Shtibel (Coffee House) began a thread about our book, A Fortress in Brooklyn, less than two weeks… READ MORE

A Baby’s First Visit to Church in 1500

A Baby’s First Visit to Church in 1500

Nicholas Orme— This is a scene from a fifteenth-century stained-glass window at Doddiscombsleigh: a country church in Devon, in the south-west of England. It shows what would have been a… READ MORE

The Gospel according to Thomas

The Gospel according to Thomas

Bentley Layton— The Gospel according to Thomas (“The Gospel of Thomas”) is an anthology of 114 “obscure sayings” of Jesus, which, according to its prologue, were collected and transmitted by… READ MORE

Work, Time, and Finance-Dominated Capitalism

Work, Time, and Finance-Dominated Capitalism

Kathryn Tanner— The Protestant ethic was the spirit of industrial capitalism in its Fordist varieties, where investments sunk in expensive equipment dedicated to the production of one thing meant mass… READ MORE

When the Pope Was in Prison

When the Pope Was in Prison

Ambrogio A. Caiani— On the night of 5 July 1809 French forces kidnapped Barnabà Chiaramonti, Pope Pius VII, from his private apartments in the Quirinal Palace in Rome. He would… READ MORE

What are Biblical Values?

What are Biblical Values?

John J. Collins— For many Christians the importance of biblical law and ethical demands has been relativized by the Christian emphasis on faith. “We know,” writes Saint Paul to the… READ MORE

Liberty in the Things of God

Liberty in the Things of God

Robert Louis Wilken— To understand how religious freedom came to be cherished as a fundamental human right, the story must begin long before the Enlightenment and the development of modern… READ MORE

Recent Posts

All Blogs

Categories