The United States may not have been a Christian republic at its start, but it soon became one. Instead of republicanism absorbing religion, religion co-opted and absorbed the energies of republicanism between 1780 and 1860. […]
The American Revolution gave people like Jefferson and Madison an opportunity to disrupt the spread of traditional Christianity in America. Later, Thomas Paine’s Deism arose as a sensational alternative to traditional Christianity. […]
Although the British North Americans colonies were settled by religious communities, Christianity did not have a stronghold in early America. The influence of Republicanism and Enlightenment also left little room for Christianity in the lives of the people of America. […]
Many of the apocryphal gospels were essentially novels written during the early Christian era, and they were filled with adventurous tales of shipwrecks, necrophilia, self-mutilation, and other wild stories. […]
With TV shows, hit Broadway plays, and Presidential candidates, Mormons have recently and suddenly returned to the national spotlight. How did Mormonism begin and what makes it so influential to pop culture today? […]
Moses Maimonides, the great 12th-century philosopher and legalist, lived at the pinnacle of Jewish culture in the Islamic world. What is amazing about Maimonides is that, despite making his living as a physician and having an active medical career, he was also a prolific writer. And “prolific” doesn’t do justice to describing the extraordinary output of his writing. […]
In most religious traditions the central and most important fundamental idea that binds the religion together as a set of beliefs, practices, and institutions is the idea of “god” or “gods.” […]
In October of 1097, after a horrendous four-month march across Asia Minor, which only half of the original army survived, the main force of Crusaders converged on Antioch. Laying the ground work to eventually take Jerusalem. […]
It’s pretty difficult to talk about what it means to be an Arab without also talking about Islam, the second largest religion in the world. The question is are the terms Arab and Muslim synonymous? The quick answer is no. In fairness Arabs are overwhelmingly Muslim, but not all of them. […]
Martin Luther debated many foes in his lifetime, but none troubled him as much as his nightly debates with Satan himself. […]
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