The Fifth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617–1682), was the first Dalai Lama to become the highest spiritual and political leader of Tibet. He is remembered by Tibetans as the Great Fifth. The boy who would be the Fifth Dalai Lama was born into a wealthy and aristocratic family in central Tibet. He also was born into a time of instability. Tibet had only recently been reunited after a period of fracturing, and the new King had ordered... Read more
In the years before the U.S. Civil War, three major Christian denominations split over slavery. These were the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist. In all three denominations disagreements over the morality of slavery began in the 1830s, and in the 1840s and 1850s factions of all three denominations left to form separate groups. However, the circumstances that caused the splits were unique to each denomination. Some background: The Atlantic slave trade that took people from Africa to be enslaved in the... Read more
Misunderstanding abounds about the role of Christianity and the abolitionist movement, the 19th century movement to abolish slavery, in the U.S. People who don’t care for religion do love to mention that many Christian ministers of the U.S. antebellum South supported slavery. And that is true. However, they don’t seem to know that more U.S. Christian ministers opposed slavery. Indeed, northern evangelical and other Christian clergy were organizers and leaders of the abolitionist movement. The organized abolitionist movement in the... Read more
Ikkō-ikki was a name given to peasants’ revolts in 15th and 16th century Japan. Most of the organizers and leaders of the revolt were Buddhist priests of the Jodo Shinshu school. The fighters, mostly farmers, merchants, and artisans, were revolting against the dominance of the samurai. For a time the revolts succeeded. Some parts of Japan in effect became independent states governed by councils of commoners, free of shogun and emperor. The ikkō-ikki revolts would eventually be brutally suppressed by the... Read more
The short list of Popes Who Resigned has only three names. These are the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who resigned in 2013; Pope Gregory XII, who resigned in 1415; and Pope Celestine V, also known as Saint Peter Celestine or Saint Peter Morrone, who resigned in 1294. And if we compiled a list of popes whose resignations were entirely voluntary, there would be only two names, Benedict’s and Celestine’s. The story of Pope Celestine V is a poignant one... Read more
Pope Joan was a woman disguised as a man who allegedly became Pope John VIII in the year 854. Let me be clear right now that this never happened. Yet the story of Pope Joan, the woman pope, was so widely believed that for a time it was written into official church history. According to author Eamon Duffy (Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, Yale University Press, 2015), the story of Pope Joan first appeared in a Dominican... Read more
Newspaper obituaries of the late Pope Emertus Benedict XVI (1927-2022) mention that he was the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign from the papacy. The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, in 1415. And since papal resignations hardly ever happen, I wanted to know why Pope Gregory XII resigned. So I looked it up, and it’s a wild story. I understand that when a pope voluntarily resigns from his office, the proper term for this act... Read more
It is the legendary location of hundreds of martial arts action movies, including Shaolin Temple (1982) starring Jet Li and Shaolin (2011) starring Andy Lau and Jackie Chan. It was depicted in flashbacks in the popular 1970s television series Kung Fu starring David Carradine. And it’s a real place, a real Buddhist temple, with a real history. It is the Shaolin Temple of China. Are the legends about kung fu monks true? There is solid documentation of Shaolin Temple monks... Read more
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179; also called Hildegard von Bingen) was a nun, an author, a composer, and a mystic. Today she is probably best remembered for her music, which is still performed. For example, here is her “O Quam Mirabilis.” Her Ordo Virtutum is an early example of liturgical drama. It may be the oldest surviving morality play. But music was just one of her talents. Among her many books was one on natural science, Physica, and another called Causae... Read more
Even if you are not into World War I history, you may have heard of the Christmas Truce. The Christmas Truce was a celebrated, impromptu ceasefire observed by many British and German troops on the Western Front, December 24-26, 1914. Soldiers met between the lines, sang Christmas carols, exchanged souvenirs, and may or may not have played football (or “rugby” to us Yanks). Here is how it happened. First, a little background: World War I, 1914-1918, was an international conflict... Read more
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