Tag: history
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Reflecting on Ezra 6 1-12
How would we describe what is “going on” in Ezra 6:1-12, the text we are studying for Sunday, March 13? That is, do we describe this as the action being taken by an emperor? And if so, can we tell what moves this emperor to act this way, or do we have some idea about…
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Muharram / Al-Hijra
The month of Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar, reckoned from the date of the Hijra, Muhammad’s arrival in Yathrib – Medina – to establish the Muslim community in exile from Mecca. Not exactly a holiday, but a milestone, and an invitation to ponder the significance of that historical event. Image: Ceramic…
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Making History
St. Matthew’s [Episcopal Church] priest showed a small group of us the balcony, which was added to the church mid-nineteenth century to segregate its enslaved members from the landed gentry below. Those southern gentlemen imagined themselves as great fathers, writing often in their personal letters about “our family, black and white.” But they also understood…
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Slaves of Christ/ians
Southern clergy defended the morality of slavery through an elaborate scriptural defense built on the infallibility of the Bible, which they held up as the universal and objective standard for moral issues. Religious messages from pulpit and from a growing religious press accounted in large part for the extreme, uncompromising, ideological atmosphere of the time.…
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The Right Kind of Nationalism?
In eighth grade, and again in 11th grade, our American History teachers, Mr. Cronk and Mr. McCreadie, had us read The Rise of the American Nation. It was blue, with George Washington on the cover. I didn’t take an American History class in college, so The Rise of the American Nation is the last systematic…
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Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Celebrating Our Bicentennial II)
This was the big day. This was a long day. People arrived early, to attend to last minute preparations, like putting the tree to be decorated during Sunday school in place, making copies of the program for the day, dropping off food for the buffet table. People stayed late, cleaning up, clearing the tables, putting…
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Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Celebrating Our Bicentennial I)
Today was the first day in our church’s week-long celebration of our 200th anniversary. It’s a lot of work. But it’s the kind of work that is also bringing people a lot of joy, which makes it a satisfying kind of exhaustion. There’s probably a lesson in that somewhere. The day began with a worship…
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Hastings Day!
“On this day in 1066, King Harold II died valiantly defending our Saxon rights.” Today is Hastings Day. The Battle of Hastings, arguably the most decisive battle in world history, was fought 953 years ago today, on October 14, 1066. I promised my brother, the historian, several years ago that I would celebrate it appropriately.…
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How Jewish Was Jesus?
Levine, Amy-Jill. The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. HarperOne, 2006. [An Installment of the “Read Me” Project.] How Jewish was Jesus? Thoroughly. If only we would stop forgetting that. If only EVERY CHRISTIAN would read this book. Barring that, if only every pastor and Christian writer would read this…
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That Old Time Religion, First Century Version
Wylen, Stephen M. The Jews in the Time of Jesus: An Introduction. New York: Paulist Press, 1996. [An installment of the “Read Me” Project] The Jews in the Time of Jesus ended up on the Read Me shelf because a book about 1st century Judaism looked so fascinating, and at the same time useful and…
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Lessons from “the Islam group”
Our community study group on Islam wound up its reading and discussion of Tamim Ansary, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, last night. We started with around 50 people (that’s a long story – maybe another time), and have ended up with about 10 or 15 stalwarts, what with jobs and…
Matters of Interpretation 