Early Christian Shennanigans

University of St Andrews in Scotland is undertaking a historic translation project of early Christian texts from the 3rd centrury CE to the Middle Ages.

“Some wrote oracles in the name of a pagan prophetess, and some even ignored biblical laws against magic, making use of spells and incantations that were attributed to biblical characters and which even invoked pagan gods.”

Perhaps the old ways really do die hard. You can find out more about the project by going to the project web page.

Paganistic Peanut-Buttery Pool

Perhaps the quote of the day from New Haven Advocate columnist Dexter on who is to blame for the canceling of controversial reality show “Welcome to the Neighborhood”:

“Worth pointing out, then, that it’s not fair to blame only the network for the cancellation; there was a veritable coalition nay an umbrella of coalitions of folks arrayed against the broadcast of the show. Also, it wasn’t just stereotypes of the potential minority/homosexual/pagan/non-Polo-wearing families the show was likely to perpetuate, but also stereotypes of white Christian Republicans. And as we all know, conservative Christians are the most persecuted people in the godless trough of hedonistic, atheistic, paganistic, holistic, communistic, peanut-buttery pool of hell-sputum that America has devolved into.”

Now that’s imagery.

Dear Philosophy Student

It was with interest that I read the article about a program that helps underprivileged and underrepresented students continue on to graduate school. But I’m worried that you are being encouraged in some flawed ideas. Witness this quote from the piece:

“For Vernon, however, his research has become more than an academic interest. It has become his passion. “I looked around the planet, and I see people hating other people, and I think a lot of that has to do with religion,” he said. Vernon said he has come to believe that the universe itself is God and that each individual within the universe is a part of that deity. His mission, he said, is to unite all religious traditions ? Christianity, Buddhism, Wicca ? under this one theological view.“

Yes people hate other people, if only it were as simple as a difference of theology. But sadly hate is also bred by economic status, race, gender, politics, war, sexual orientation, greed, lust, and a host of other factors. Plus (and I hate to tell you this), but I don’t want to be united theologically with different faiths. I like being a Pagan and I like my theology. I don’t want to water mine down to please some ur-faith and if I don’t want to you can bet my evangelical friends won’t want to. Heck we can’t even get theological agreement within major faith traditions!

But at any rate, good luck with graduate school. I wish you a deepening of wisdom and knowledge.

Esoteric Artist Featured In New Exhibition

RedNova reports on a new traveling exhibition of Latin American artist Xul Solar. This show will focus more on the esoteric, mystic, and spiritual influences of his work. It will also see the first individual American exhibition of the artist when it debuts at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

“Xul Solar’s art has usually been viewed as part of the Latin American avant-garde of the early 20th century. But the curator of the Malba show, Patricia Artundo, has chosen to give equal weight to the mystical and spiritual aspects of his work; the first painting visitors see on entering the gallery is a painting Xul Solar did of his own horoscope in 1953. “His was a spiritual search, but not in a straight line,” Artundo said. “Occult sciences, the kabala, astrology, the I Ching, the tarot, Aleister Crowley they all flow together along with his vanguard tendencies and play a role in his desire to unify Latin America on a spiritual basis.” Critics and art historians often compare Xul Solar to Paul Klee, whose work he saw and admired during the dozen years he spent in Europe before returning in 1924 to Argentina. Like Klee, Xul Solar often included letters, numbers and other symbols in his paintings. The color schemes the two artists adopted were often similar too, as was the underlying spirit of their work and their interest in primitive and archaic art.”

I think it is great that mystic and esoteric art from outside the dominant Eurocentric viewpoint is getting some attention. If you have the opportunity check out this artist Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges called “our William Blake.”