The Trials of Kumarajiva the Translator

Last updated on: August 25, 2022 at 2:39 pm By Barbara O'Brien

Kumarajiva (344–413 CE) is remembered for translating many significant Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese. His influence on the development of Buddhism in China cannot be overstated. And he accomplished this while being caught up in outrageous political upheavals and intrigues in China. For example, Kumarajiva spent several years of his life as the hostage of a rogue warlord. But in order to appreciate what Kumarajiva went through, you need a bit of background into China’s history. Big Troubles In... Read more

The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

Last updated on: August 22, 2022 at 5:14 pm By Barbara O'Brien

Descriptions of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 1572, are gut-wrenching to read even now. The mob violence spread out from Paris and through the French provinces over a period of more than two months. It’s hard to know how many died; historians today say that 20,000 to 30,000 is a probable figure, with 2,000 to 3,000 dead in Paris alone. The slaughter began in Paris on Sunday, August 24, the feast day of Bartholomew the Apostle. Within a few hours... Read more

Jews in Colonial America

Last updated on: September 27, 2022 at 10:31 am By Barbara O'Brien

Yes, there were Jews in colonial America. It wasn’t just Puritans and Quakers. The history of Judaism in North America began in 1654, when 23 Sephardic Jews arrived in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, or today’s New York City. Like the Puritans, they were refugees from religious persecution. About Sephardic Jews The Sephardi or Sepharadim are Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent. Historians believe the first Jewish communities on the Iberian Peninsula date to the time after the destruction... Read more

The Edicts of Ashoka

Last updated on: August 17, 2022 at 10:11 am By Barbara O'Brien

Much of what we know about Ashoka the Great is taken from the edicts of Ashoka, which were inscribed throughout his empire on boulders and on magnificent sandstone pillars. Ashoka the Great reigned from about 268 to 232 BCE. Ashoka’s empire, called the Mauryan Empire, was huge; it took in most of modern-day India and part of Bangladesh as well as portions of what is now Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. In this post I’d like to talk more about the... Read more

The Mystery of the Pillars of Ashoka

Last updated on: August 13, 2022 at 5:37 pm By Barbara O'Brien

Now we call them the pillars of Ashoka. But for centuries no one knew who had built them or what they represented. For centuries, travelers in India noted the magnificent sandstone pillars, 40 to 50 feet high. Many were capped with elaborate carvings of animals, usually lions, but sometimes elephants or oxen or possibly horses. Many were covered with writing, but no one recognized the script. Most intriguiging, the massive monuments — which weighed up to 50 tons each —... Read more

Father Georges Lemaître and the Big Bang Theory

Last updated on: August 30, 2022 at 11:12 am By Barbara O'Brien

The gorgeous images of distant space taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope put astronomy in the news. It’s well known that some religious institutions have had, shall we say, issues with astronomy. But did you know the Big Bang theory of physics about how the universe began was first proposed by a Catholic priest? Georges Lemaître (1894-1966), a native of Belgium, lived a life on two tracks, science and the Church. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1920... Read more

The Many Fake Quotes of Laozi

Last updated on: August 24, 2022 at 10:14 am By Barbara O'Brien

Fake quotes are a known hazard of the Web. The Chinese philosopher Laozi (or Lao tzu) currently may be the most commonly attributed source of fake quotes on social media. I can’t verify that, but there’s no question the Web is well stocked with memes pairing him with lovely sayings he never said. It may take Laozi a while to catch up to the all-time king of fake quotes, Confucius, but give him time. Who Was Laozi? Laozi is remembered... Read more

When Evangelicals Were Liberal

Last updated on: January 18, 2023 at 12:57 pm By Barbara O'Brien

There were liberal evangelicals? What if I told you that evangelical Christians were the original social justice warriors? Seems unlikely, I know, but keep reading. One of my favorite quotes is from a British novelist named L. P. Hartley — “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” History is full of surprises. It is not just a version of the present with strange clothes and bad technology. Cultures and institutions can sometimes change very rapidly in... Read more