One of the most lucid examples of how religions both change and still remain meaningful comes from James Kugel’s two … Continue Reading Thoughts for Shabbat: Will the Real Psalm 23 Please Stand Up?
For those who are out stampeding each other for flat-screen TVs, and for those forced to work so others can … Continue Reading Happy Black Friday
Karl Shapiro, “The Alphabet” The letters of the Jews as strict as flames Or little terrible flowers lean Stubbornly upwards … Continue Reading Karl Shapiro, “The Alphabet”
Probably the most lucid example of how religions both change drastically, and yet remain meaningful, is right here in James … Continue Reading Will the Real Psalm 23 Please Stand Up?
The affront that many of Caravaggio’s greatest paintings presented to their first audience must have been astonishing: casting a local … Continue Reading Caravaggio’s Dirty Feet
When, in 1522, Martin Luther agreed to a staged kidnapping that would keep him safe from Catholic and other authorities, … Continue Reading Martin Luther Reinvents the German Language
One of the great jazz standards of Medieval & Renaissance art, here’s only a selection of all the depictions of … Continue Reading Images: The Saint & the Lion
Lawrence Wright’s recent book on the history of Scientology is an immensely important document for studying how religions begin. While … Continue Reading What Scientology Tells Us About How Religions Begin
Unfinished Michelangelo The impossible bodies of apostles, messiahs and slaves, statues that couldn’t have stood had he finished them, faces … Continue Reading Unfinished Michelangelo (poem)
For those who are out stampeding each other for flat-screen TVs, and for those forced to work so others can … Continue Reading Happy Black Friday
Four stories from the great Jewish tradition of the sacredness of the Torah, of Hebrew, and of the letters of … Continue Reading The Great Myths #45: Sacred Language Creates the World (Jewish)
One of the longer myths I’ll post here, the following story is well worth it, and is indeed a master-class … Continue Reading The Great Myths #43 Sacred Language & the Story of Gwion Bach & Taliesin (Welsh)
A brother of the monastery is found to possess God’s gift of poetry [A. D. 680] In this monastery of … Continue Reading The Great Myths #42: Sacred Language & the Story of Caedmon (Christian)
And it happened after these things that God tested Abraham. And He said to him, “Abraham!” and he said, “Here … Continue Reading The Great Myths #18: The Sacrifice of Isaac (Jewish)
The first evening is devoted to preparation for the rite. The kam (shaman), having chosen a spot in a meadow, … Continue Reading The Great Myths #16: A Siberian Horse Sacrifice, and the Shaman’s Ascent to the Sky (Altaic)
Around the year 627, when King Edwin of Northumbria and his advisors were discussing the possibility of converting to Christianity, … Continue Reading The Great Myths #14: The Sparrow in Northumbria (Christian)
