This quote, shared by a speaker I was listening to this week, created vulnerable space for reflection: “If you live as a hermit (or alone), whose feet will you wash?” It is reportedly from St. Basil of Caesarea (329-379), or St. Basil the Great, one of the Fathers of the first four centuries of the Christian… Read More “If you live as a hermit, whose feet will you wash?”
What does it mean for Christianity to ‘Triumph’? As seen in the photo, this is the title of one of Rodney Stark’s books, The Triumph of Christianity. Actually I’m not taking aim at this historian or even this book. Rodney Stark has had a distinguished career as a sociologist/historian, the last many years at Baylor University… Read More What Does the ‘Triumph’ of Christianity Really Mean?
A Saint who doubts? Perhaps for some of us those are two things that don’t go together. We may think that a Saint, or someone we consider very religious or spiritual, is always confident of the presence of God. Someone who never doubts or questions. Think again. Many of those “closest” to God have actually… Read More A Doubting Saint: Ever Feel Abandoned By God?
It has been often taught that the first Universities were in Europe, and particularly so when it comes to “Christian” ones. But this must be re-evaluated when considering that there were several centers of learning in Asia centuries before Oxford, Bologna, Paris and others existed. In my blog post The First Universities were in Asia, not… Read More Nisibis in the 5th Century: First Christian University in History
Where is the borderline between racism and bad old ignorance? I wondered about that question again last week as news came that Shah Rukh Khan was yet again harassed at US immigration. For those of you who don’t know who he is, well, he’s a global mega-movie star not only in India but much of… Read More Racism Towards an Indian Global Star or Plain Ignorance?
Where exactly did St. Thomas go on his journey from Jerusalem? Did he go by land or sea? Did he go east more than once? Did he indeed make it to India, or even as some believe, to China? And the specific question I’m asking in this post, did he visit the First century educational… Read More Did St. Thomas visit the University of Taxila in the First Century?
Last week I was on a teaching assignment in Tarrytown, New York, a historic and beautiful area just north of Manhattan on the Hudson River. While there I visited the Lyndhurst Mansion estate. Designed in 1838 by Alexander Jackson Davis in an American Gothic style, the first owner was a former New York City mayor.… Read More An Old House on a Hill: Continuity and Change in History and the Future
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