By Tristan D. Vick / 10.11.2017 A Short Recap of the Ignostic Position Ignosticism is the philosophical position that most descriptions and definitions of God are incoherent, incomplete, discrepant, or contradictory (if not all of the above) and so cannot be discussed meaningfully. What this means is that asking questions about God, or ruminating on[…]
FDR / Library of Congress By Dr. Gene Zubovich / 03.22.2016 Visiting Lecturer in History University of California, Berkeley President Barack Obama insists that the United States defines itself by civic principles rather than by religious affiliation. In an otherwise unremarkable press conference in Turkey in 2009, he said: ‘[A]lthough… we have a very large Christian population,[…]
Aerial view of the Louvre Museum (2010), photo: Matthias Kabel (CC BY-SA 3.0) “The origin of the modern museum…is linked to the development of the guillotine.” By Dr. Elizabeth Rodini / 07.09.2018 Professor of Art History Johns Hopkins University “The origin of the modern museum…is linked to the development of the guillotine.” —Georges Bataille, October, 1986 This statement by[…]
Gallery in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (photo: Dr. Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) When people think of museums, art museums most often come to mind—solemn places where visitors stand in silence contemplating neat rows of paintings. By Dr. Elizabeth Rodini / 07.10.2018 Professor of Art History Johns Hopkins University When people think of museums, art museums[…]
The view inside Pompeii’s old granary (Francesco Lastrucci) The famous archaeological treasure is falling into scandalous decline, even as its sister city Herculaneum is rising from the ashes. By Joshua Hammer / 07.2015 On a sweltering summer afternoon, Antonio Irlando leads me down the Via dell’Abbondanza, the main thoroughfare in first-century Pompeii. The architect and conservation[…]
Ruins of the Roman Forum / Wikimedia Commons The early history of the Roman Republic was one of fierce external pressure accompanied by sharp internal tensions. The Romans’ triumph over both these challenges laid the foundations for their future. Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 07.12.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Introduction Latins, Greeks and Etruscans In[…]