Lease an anti-Semite who used anti-Jewish tropes and direct anti-Semitic references to stir up her audience. There is a statue of Mary E. Lease in Wichita, Kansas, erected in 2001 by a Kansas women’s club she founded in 1886. As someone active in the push to take down statues and rename places, I have been thinking a[…]
Humanists believed in the importance of an education in classical literature and the promotion of civic virtue. Introduction Renaissance Humanism was a movement in thought, literature, and art, typified by a revival in interest in the classical world and studies which focussed not on religion but on what it is to be human. With its origins in 14th-century CE Italy and such authors as Petrarch (1304-1374 CE) who[…]
Reading the gospels as history without the criteria we apply to the reading of all ancient history remains problematic. Introduction The story of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ is reenacted every year by Christians all over the world in the Easter liturgy. The story has become an essential article of faith and is rarely questioned by New Testament scholars[…]
The theme of Salome is one that Moreau returned to time and again. Salome dancing before Herod, with its bewildering subject matter and lush colors, is without a doubt one of the most remarkable paintings of the nineteenth century. The painting was first exhibited at the 1876 Salon (and shortly thereafter at the 1878 World’s Fair), along[…]
Writing is one of the activities that makes us humans so unique. For thousands of years, the human race has been attempting to record its thoughts and experiences with various forms of the written word. From its beginnings, the written word has become one of the most powerful tools we have when it comes to[…]