The Sacrifice at Calvary
May 12, 2020
Terry Eagleton— Walter Benjamin’s theory of tragedy in his The Origin of German Tragic Drama has some affinities with the Christian view of Calvary. Tragedy for Benjamin is essentially sacrifice,… READ MORE
Category: Religion
Social Order in the New World
May 7, 2020
J. H. Elliott— Family and hierarchy were the twin pillars supporting the social structure of Early Modern Europe. The ordered family, under the control of the head of the household,… READ MORE
Revolutionary or Impostor . . . Who Was Ahmed Khan?
April 24, 2020
Ian Coller— O Lydian lord of many nations, foolish Croesus,Wish not to hear the longed-for voice within your palace,Even your son’s voice: better for you were it otherwise;For his first… READ MORE
Material Culture and the Ethnicity of Non-Jewish Christians
April 23, 2020
Christopher Stroup— The cities of the Roman Empire were filled with gods and the citizens who honored them with festivals, processions, buildings, and benefactions. The followers of Jesus—later called Christians—lived… READ MORE
Coming to Terms with the Catholic 1950s
April 16, 2020
Leslie Woodcock Tentler— The streets of my suburban childhood were peopled by two religious tribes—the Catholics, who were in the majority, and the Protestants, a quasi-tribe to which every non-Catholic… READ MORE
The Siege of Acre
April 14, 2020
John D. Hosler— Richard the Lionheart lowered his lance and drove it into the shoulder of his jousting opponent, the celebrated Ayyubid sultan Salāh al-Dīn (Saladin), knocking him and his… READ MORE
Nietzsche and Moses’s Stutter
April 1, 2020
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg— The tendency of meaning to burn out of language is a constant theme in Nietzsche’s writings. Here lies the paradox of the stammer: May your virtue be… READ MORE
Encountering Eastern Orthodoxy
March 23, 2020
John A. McGuckin— Encountering Eastern Orthodoxy is not so common an event that it never risks a general level of misunderstanding. I, who am a priest of that church, was… READ MORE
Heaven, Hell, and Non-Muslims in the Qur’an
March 19, 2020
Gabriel Said Reynolds— Heaven and hell are important notions to the Qur’an, the scripture of Islam. The divine voice of the Qur’an assures its audience that those who are faithful… READ MORE
Learning to Meditate
March 10, 2020
Stephen Batchelor— Even on long summer days in rural England when it would not get dark until 10 pm, my mother insisted on sending her two sons to bed early,… READ MORE
A Forest of Words: A Conversation with Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng