The Origins of Dragons

Last updated on: May 8, 2023 at 10:01 am By Barbara O'Brien

What are the origins of dragons? It isn’t clear when and where dragons first appeared in the world, or even if there was a “first appearance.” Creatures with some of the attributes of dragons are found in the earliest folktales and legends of many cultures around the world. It’s commonly speculated that such creatures were inspired by dinosaur fossils. Anthropologist David E. Jones, in his book An Instinct for Dragons (Routledge, 2002), argues that humans are “hardwired” to believe in... Read more

Saint George of England

Last updated on: May 4, 2023 at 8:26 am By Barbara O'Brien

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Saint George is the patron saint of England, and he is famous for slaying a dragon. That much I knew. So I thought that in light of this week’s coronation of King Charles III, it would be fun to dig into the life of Saint George. But here’s the truth about Saint George: he probably existed only in legends. Even so, in spite of his likely being fictional, Saint George was canonized in the year 494 by Pope Gelasius. His... Read more

Coronations in Westminster Abbey: A History

Last updated on: May 3, 2023 at 9:45 am By Barbara O'Brien

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King Charles’s coronation on May 6 will be a really fancy Anglican Church service, and it will be held in a seriously historic church. According to the Abbey website, there have been 38 coronations in Westminster Abbey, and 39 monarchs crowned. The difference in number came about because William III and Mary II reigned jointly and were crowned together in 1689. King Charles III will be the 40th monarch crowned at Westminster. Most sources say the first royal coronation in... Read more

The Deeper Meaning of Agnosticism

Last updated on: April 29, 2023 at 3:59 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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Agnosticism is a word coined in 1869 by the English biologist T. H. Huxley. And it may not mean what you think it means. In popular English usage, agnosticism is a kind of theistic fence sitting; the agnostic is one who doesn’t take a position on whether God exists or not. But the meaning of agnosticism that Huxley intended is, to me, much more interesting. The word was coined from the Greek agnōstos, which means “unknown” or “unknowable.” The meaning... Read more

How a Bronze Statue by Michelangelo Became a Cannon

Last updated on: April 28, 2023 at 10:27 am By Barbara O'Brien

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Even geniuses can have rough patches. One of Michelangelo’s major works, a huge bronze statue of Pope Julius II, was destroyed only three years after it was completed. And then the bronze was melted down and made into a cannon nicknamed “Julius.” The statue was commissioned by Pope Julius II shortly before Michelangelo began work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The story behind the creation of the statue tells us a lot about the contentious relationship between the artist and... Read more

Do the Ten Commandments Belong in Public School Classrooms?

Last updated on: April 23, 2023 at 4:43 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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The Texas Senate has passed a bill that mandates posting the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the state. To become law, the bill still needs to be passed by the Texas House and signed by the governor, and I don’t know if that will happen. But I do know we’ve been down this road before. A similar Kentucky statute mandating that the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court 43... Read more

The True Story of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Last updated on: August 14, 2023 at 1:36 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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Michelangelo’s frescos on the Sistine Chapel ceiling represent the peak of the High Renaissance. Even if you know little else about Renaissance art, you’ve seen at least one of those frescos, The Creation of Adam, many times. The Sistine Chapel was built by Pope Sixtus IV (r. 1471-1484), who had the walls gorgeously illustrated with biblical scenes by a team of the greatest artists of the day. Sixtus IV was also famous for nepotism. Several of his nephews were named... Read more

Pope Sixtus IV and the Italian Renaissance

Last updated on: April 15, 2023 at 5:21 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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The reign of Pope Sixtus IV, 1471 to 1484, is still felt in Rome today. He was one of the most significant of the Renaissance Popes, along with his predecessor Nicholas V and Julius II, who came later. The reign of Sixtus also was marked by some of the best and worst traits of the papacy. Pope Sixtus IV’s legacy includes both the Sistine Chapel and the Spanish Inquisition. Together, the succession of popes who reigned during the Italian Renaissance... Read more

How the Renaissance Popes Made Rome

Last updated on: April 14, 2023 at 10:29 am By Barbara O'Brien

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The Renaissance popes made Rome what it is today. In spite of its previous existence as the magnificent capital of the Roman Empire, medieval Rome was barely a city at all. Historians tell us that the Rome of the Middle Ages was little more than linked villages clustered around the Tiber River. The remnants of earlier Roman civilization — the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Forum — were long abandoned except as quarries for building material. Farm animals and homeless humans... Read more

How the Italian Renaissance Began

Last updated on: April 10, 2023 at 10:55 am By Barbara O'Brien

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The Italian Renaissance was one of the shining jewels of human history. The Renaissance itself began in Tuscany, especially in Florence, in the late 13th century, although the great age of Italian Renaissance art was the 14th through 16th centuries. And by then the Renaissance was spreading to other parts of Europe. This post will be a very basic, broad overview of the origins of the Italian Renaissance and the role of religion in those origins. The Italian Renaissance brings... Read more