Things began to get better: economy improved; there was a return to building cathedrals, universities, cities...; a return to “luxuries” - paper, plays, music...; a return to invention - the compass, printing...; a return to exploration - Africa, the New World, the Pacific.... It was the renaissance, which we date (roughly!) from 1400 to 1600 or so. They were vigorous times, interesting times, dangerous times!The aristocracy had won the day over the fledgling monarchies and even the church’s

When you gather around the Christmas tree or stuff goodies into a stocking, you're taking part in traditions that stretch back thousands of years — long before Christianity entered the mix.Pagan, or non-Christian, traditions show up in this beloved winter holiday, a consequence of early church leaders melding Jesus' nativity celebration with pre-existing midwinter festivals. Since then, Christmas traditions have warped over time, arriving at their current state a little more than a century

Although crows and ravens are part of the same family (Corvus), they’re not exactly the same bird. Typically, ravens are quite a bit bigger than crows, and they tend to be a bit shaggier looking. The raven actually has more in common with hawks and other predatory birds than the standard, smaller-sized crow. In addition, although both birds have an impressive repertoire of calls and noises they make, the raven’s call is usually a bit deeper and more guttural sounding than that of the crow.Both

Candomblé (meaning dance in honor of the gods) is a religion found primarily in Brazil with a number of elements derived from African cultures. It not only incorporates some religious aspects of Yoruba, Bantu, and Fon African societies, but it gradually integrated some characteristics of Catholicism as well. It can be argued that Candomblé represents the syncretism that transpired following the cultural interaction between people of African descent and Europeans. Although Candomblé does not

The remains of the first Catholic pope have been exhumed by archaeologists and have been remarkably well preserved, as well as turning up some secrets the church would rather have stayed buried. The mummy of Pope St. Pius I is one of the best preserved in the history of mankind. His corpse was not embalmed, it was mummified naturally for a period of about 1,700 years. His remains are considered a true discovery for science, because even though during life he suffered from cardiovascular

Within my lifetime there has been a monumental change in the churches. In the last few decades New Age Eastern Mysticism and Gnosticism has entered a majority of Christian churches. It entered very slowly, like the analogy of a frog in a pot. When the pot is slowly brought to a boil with a live frog in the pot it has been observed that it will not jump out because it does not feel the changes in temperature until it is boiled to death. The "slow boil" of New Age brainwashing in the churches

We think of prophecy as a revealing of information that can include warnings or spiritual insights. In the Old Testament, prophets were revered and the wisdom they imparted considered of the highest authority. They acted as a conduit to divine revelation as the will of God was revealed to them through communication with the Holy Spirit.Christianity was built upon a Messianic figure whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament books of Daniel and Isaiah. Yet in recent times, prophecy has

We tend to think of the ancient world as having many distinct religions, all somehow pure and authentic in themselves. But the truth is more complicated, of course. Muslims, Christians, and Jews debated each other at times, and their religions influenced each other. Platonism also influenced these three religions, or at least their more mystical and esoteric schools of thought. Moreover, even in antiquity people often practiced different faiths, having, for example, to be a part of the state

Heaven may refer to the physical heavens, the Earths atmosphere, the solar system or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond, though it is generally spoken of as a plane of existence (sometimes held to exist in our own universe) in religions and spiritual philosophies, typically described as the holiest possible place, accessible by people according to various standards of divinity (goodness, piety, etc.) Christians generally hold that it is the afterlife destination of those who

Emily Clark’s new work, A Luminous Brotherhood, is an extensive study of a subject that has weirdly been neglected in scholarship: the career of the Afro-Creole Spiritualist Cercle Harmonique from 1858 to 1877. Religious studies scholar Clark has thoroughly mined the records of the Cercle, kept at the University of New Orleans, and produced one of the most important recent works I have seen in race and religion in American history.By focusing on Afro-Creole Spiritualism in New Orleans, we get

There's no way in one blogpost a to discuss the wide variety of beliefs and practices that are typically associated with New Age spirituality. New Age thinking is so diverse, so fluid, and so unique to each individual practitioner that it is probably not possible to make any general statement about the religion of the New Age that could not be challenged by someone pointing out significant exceptions to the rule. Nevertheless, a few common features dominate so much of New Age spirituality that