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August 2024

August 21, 2024
Everyone knows that Zen and the martial arts go together, right?  Well, sorta kinda. In...
August 01, 2024
The marathon monks of Enryakuji, a historic Buddhist temple complex in Japan, are famous for...

July 2024

July 10, 2024
Religious Liberty and Josh Hawley don't mix. The Republican U.S. Senator from Missouri has made...
July 07, 2024
"Teaching the Bible" -- what does that mean? Now that the state of Oklahoma had...
July 02, 2024
The Declaration of Independence mentions God three times, in three different ways. Near the beginning...

June 2024

June 26, 2024
The Louisiana Ten Commandments bill I wrote about last month has been signed into law...
June 20, 2024
There are multiple views about "original Buddhism." The historical Buddha lived, we believe, about 26...

May 2024

May 30, 2024
The Florida Department of Education has been directing middle school and high school teachers to...
May 23, 2024
The Appeal to Heaven Flag, also called the Pine Tree Flag, is a bit of...
May 19, 2024
The Louisiana legislature just passed a bill mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in...
May 17, 2024
The relationship of church and state is one of the vexing issues of our time. ...
May 10, 2024
Let's talk about "spiritual but not religious." Certainly you are free to call yourself that,...

April 2024

April 17, 2024
The Great Disappointment is the name given to a time when the world as we...
April 11, 2024
The recent solar eclipse visible in North America inspired much social media commentary about the...
April 04, 2024
"Dr. Livingstone, I presume." The famous encounter between journalist Henry Morton Stanley and missionary David...

March 2024

March 12, 2024
The empress Wu Zetian (624-705) was one of China's greatest rulers. She is also known...
March 07, 2024
How close is the new Shogun miniseries (not to be confused with the old one...

February 2024

February 29, 2024
One of the most iconic images of the 20th century is the photograph of a...
February 26, 2024
The recent consternation about frozen zygotes, in vitro fertilization and "fertilized egg personhood" laws made...
February 20, 2024
By "peak Jesus" I mean that there may be a limit to how much Christianity...
February 14, 2024
William I, Prince of Orange (1533–1584), is remembered as a champion of religious freedom. He...
February 08, 2024
I've been writing about Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries, and before moving on...
February 04, 2024
Christianity was banned in Japan in 1614. This was about 65 years after it had...
February 03, 2024
The 26 martyrs of Nagasaki were Christian missionaries who were crucified in Nagasaki, Japan, on...

January 2024

January 26, 2024
Why are there more nones? The "nones," you probably know, are people who have no...
January 21, 2024
The Thai Forest Tradition, or more formally the Kammaṭṭhāna Forest Tradition of Thailand, is a...
January 17, 2024
U Dhammaloka (1856–1914, maybe) was (possibly) the first westerner to become an ordained Buddhist monk....
January 11, 2024
This is the story of the Vipassana Movement, which began in 19th century Burma --...
January 02, 2024
Will there be Christian public schools in the U.S.? Recently Heidi Przybyla reported for Politico...

December 2023

December 18, 2023
The commercialization of Christmas is something both endorsed and lamented. Many people imagine Christmas to...
Related posts from The Religious History Nerd
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The Marathon Monks of Japan
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The Quest for Original Buddhism
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Wu Zetian, Ruthless Empress and Patroness of Buddhism
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Thích Quảng Duc: The Burning Monk
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