You are looking at a detail of contemporary artist Peter Booth’s painting, “Apocolyptic Landscape” (1983) — the shapes are jagged and random; the red, black, and brown coloring evokes filth; and the black and white streaks appear flattened next to some penetrating rondels in red and yellow. It is a fitting accompaniment to discuss another […]
The Apocalypses by Apostle Peter and Peter Booth Read More »
The Byzantine Empire had a good run, from the move of the Roman capital from Rome to Constantinople in 330 CE to the takeover of the illustrious city in 1453. The individual emperors, however, frequently were not as lucky in their reigns. Here you see an 11th-century manuscript showing the murder of Emperor Romanos III
Mutilations of Byzantine Emperors Read More »
What does it take to change a mind? Often the transition between one set of beliefs to another doesn’t happen radically — even if it seems so. The place of Christianity in the mind of the Emperor Constantine (d. 337) is a case in point. He and his contemporary biographers might have imagined a swift
The Religious Conversion of Emperor Constantine Read More »
To me, this is a comical picture showing a bunch of men climbing up a ladder while devils try to grab them or shoot them down — kind of like a *very* old-school Donkey Kong. To the 12th-century Byzantine artist who painted this icon, known as “the Ladder of Divine Ascent,” it was a true-to-life
Byzantine Painting “The Ladder of Divine Ascent” Read More »
You’re looking at a 700+ year-old heart, recovered from a Medieval autopsy of Saint Clare of Montefalco, and considered a miraculous relic demonstrating Clare’s special relationship to God. Also did I mention that this is an actual heart?When super holy people — I mean “athletes for God” holy– died, Ancient and Medieval Christians thought they
Saint Clare’s Medieval Heart Read More »
In the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium, disputes over proper religious beliefs polarized the state for centuries, giving fodder to the fourth-century pagan chronicler Ammianus Marcellinus’ claim that “no wild beasts are as ferocious as Christians are to each other”.To us the disputes seem ridiculous: should holy images/icons be allowed? Does Jesus have one or
Byzantine Empire Battles Over Religious Beliefs Read More »
Folks, step right up and cast your eyes on the oldest known monastic site to be excavated. Located in the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt West of the Nile (see second image), the most recent dig happened in 2020 as the COVID pandemic wore on.It is simply incredible that such rich discoveries are still being made.
Egypt’s Oldest Excavated Monastic Site Read More »
*SOME* folks think the Italian Renaissance was the *only* Renaissance. But we Medievalists realize that there were several times when the culture of the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations was self-consciously re-created, to form phenomenal artistic movements.And if you’re not a Medieval historian who knew this already, no worries — I am here to fix
The Macedonian Renaissance’s “The Paris Psalter” Artwork Read More »
And from whence does this Ancient Roman-style barrel vaulted ceiling appear, you might be asking? Not from Italy, but rather from the imagination of the talented and bizarre brain of the American aristocrat Henry Champman Mercer, who had it built in 1914 to house his vast collection of tools and artifacts from before the Industrial
Henry Mercer Museum and Artifacts Read More »
Here is a picture of the Flemish artist Hans Memling’s _Allegory of Chastity_, and although it was done in the 15th century, it testifies to the long-term effects of Christianity’s radical sexual revolution that had begun a millennium and a half before.Here you see Chastity, besieged by the lions of sexual behavior that would threaten
Hans Memling’s “Allegory of Chastity” Read More »
Two fancy skeletons are my features today: one an homage, the other the actual man (as far as believers thought). Here I bring you the decorated corpse of Saint Maximus, brought to the village of Bürglen, Germany, in 1682. Turns out that in the Catholic Counter-Reformation, bedazzling the bones of the saints was all the
Saint Maximus’s Decorated Skeleton Read More »
You probably recognize the bird in this 13th-century Medieval illumination as the legendary Phoenix, who lived for 500 years and then cast itself into flames in order to be reborn. Medieval people had never seen such beasts, of course, but loved to imagine that fantastical creatures lived far away in exotic lands — and the
Medieval Phoenix and Prester John Read More »
Wanna know a crazy thing that a lot of British and American people were interested in during the late 19th and early 20th centuries?: masturbation. Moralists and medical writers freaked the heck out over “onanism,” a term that Victorians liked using for wanking, jerking off, sailing the taco, flicking the bean, etc, etc.Anti-masturbation diatribes have
Anti-Masturbation Movements and Practices Read More »
Here you see a picture of Achilles making sacrifices to Zeus. It is a unique image, coming from a 5th-century CE manuscript thought to be the only one from Antiquity illustrating Homer’s epic poem _The Illiad_. The scarcity of such depictions belies the importance of Homer on Ancient Roman culture, because all educated people would
Homer and Christianity Read More »
Yesterday’s post featured a successful entrepreneur (Walt Disney) whose Utopian community failed to come to fruition. Today I am looking at a Utopian community which grew into a successful corporate enterprise, almost despite itself. And here I am talking about Oneida, the New York-based silverware company (see second image for vintage silverware photo). And incongruously,
This statue of Spanish scientist and theologian Michael Servetus was only erected in Geneva in 2011, which I suppose is better late than never. And the reason we can be judgy here is because it was the Genevan government that had Servetus burned at the stake for religious heresy — and that had happened about
Michael Servetus, Scientist Killed by Religious Zealots Read More »
Conrad Beissel (1691-1768) was the founding leader of a monastic group of dissident Christians in Ephrata. The cloister he set up in this remote location at one point held 80 celibate followers, both men and women. His final home, featured here, was a much larger space than many of Ephrata’s members, and yet it still
Conrad Beissel and the Ephrata Cloister Read More »
This little Beasty comes from an early 15th-century manuscript as just part of a doodle or marginalia. It looks vampire-ish enough to set the mood about a pope who lived in the same century and was accused of vampirism.And I am talking about Pope Innocent (*queue irony for the name*) the VIII. Like other leaders
Pope Innocent and Vampirism Read More »
The Great Awakening had a lot of impact. Not only did it lay the groundwork for countless American high school students to read _The Scarlet Letter_, but it created a mood of religious dynamism that inspired many to begin their own Christian denominations. Like this person here, the “Publick Universal Friend,” neé Jemima Wilkinson, born
The Society of Universal Friends Read More »
We might not realize it, but the Christian culture of today carries with it a footprint of the spiritual universe of the Ancient Mediterranean world. Although modern scientific models overlay most of our ideas about what the universe looks like, the pagan, Christian, and Jewish religions of Ancient Rome had undergone a sort of revolution
The Ancient Universe in Religion Read More »
