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April 2023

April 27, 2023
Even geniuses can have rough patches. One of Michelangelo's major works, a huge bronze statue...
April 22, 2023
The Texas Senate has passed a bill that mandates posting the Ten Commandments in every...
April 19, 2023
Michelangelo's frescos on the Sistine Chapel ceiling represent the peak of the High Renaissance. Even...
April 15, 2023
The reign of Pope Sixtus IV, 1471 to 1484, is still felt in Rome today....
April 13, 2023
The Renaissance popes made Rome what it is today. In spite of its previous existence...
April 09, 2023
The Italian Renaissance was one of the shining jewels of human history. The Renaissance itself...
April 05, 2023
The fallout from the recent Michelangelo's David controversy continues. If you've spent the past month...

March 2023

March 31, 2023
Of all the great works of art associated with the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ,...
March 29, 2023
Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper has a surprising history. Even being asked to paint...
March 26, 2023
The Meiji Era, which began in the late 19th century, utterly upended Japanese Buddhism. Sweeping...
March 24, 2023
The Buddhist nuns of Japan, like their sisters in other parts of Asia, struggled against...
March 18, 2023
The first Japanese Buddhist nuns were not welcome in Japan. It's recorded that three Japanese...
March 15, 2023
For centuries the only fully ordained Buddhist nuns anywhere were in east Asia -- China,...
March 12, 2023
The Buddhist nuns of Sri Lanka have needed determination for there to be nuns at...
March 11, 2023
The Buddhist nun controversy stems from the many barriers Buddhist women have faced in Asia. ...
March 05, 2023
The United States in the 19th century was a surprising place. Although it was marked...
March 04, 2023
Talking with the dead was all the rage in the United States in much of...

February 2023

February 26, 2023
Christian mysticism flourished in 13th century Europe. Many of the 13th century mystics were Beguines,...
February 24, 2023
Beguines were women of medieval Europe -- and later -- who dedicated themselves to charity,...
February 19, 2023
The Mirror of Simple Souls is a classic work of medieval Christian mysticism that was...
February 17, 2023
Heracles was a hero of ancient Greek mythology. He's better known to most of us...
February 12, 2023
Tibet's declaration of independence is a statement released by His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama,...
February 11, 2023
Britain invaded Tibet in 1903. The British did not intend to conquer Tibet but to...
February 05, 2023
The government of China is in possession of a particular golden urn. This urn, it...

January 2023

January 31, 2023
China's claim to Tibet as a territory of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is...
January 27, 2023
The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (1683–1706) didn't want the job. He was enthroned as...
January 24, 2023
The Fifth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617–1682), was the first Dalai Lama...
January 21, 2023
In the years before the U.S. Civil War, three major Christian denominations split over slavery....
January 20, 2023
Misunderstanding abounds about the role of Christianity and the abolitionist movement, the 19th century movement...
January 15, 2023
Ikkō-ikki was a name given to peasants' revolts in 15th and 16th century Japan. Most of...
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