Plutarch is one of history's most influential authors: his insights were foundational to thinkers ranging from William Shakespeare to Alexander Hamilton, Nietzsche to Montesquieu. Yet, today his writings have fallen out of favor, in part because the genre he pioneered, biography, has fallen out of favor within academia, though it retains popularity…

I'm Removing You From The Group ChatAncient & New による

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines over the third week in April. The Capitals of Egypt Museum Improved Services at Egyptian Museum in Tahrir World Heritage Day Exhibitions https://egymonuments.com/locations/tickets/EgyptianMuseum These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/…

The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, the monumental Sanskrit epic of the life of Rama, ideal man and incarnation of the great god Visnu, has profoundly affected the literature, art, religions, and cultures of South and Southeast Asia from antiquity to the present. Filled with thrilling battles, flying monkeys, and ten-headed demons, the work, composed almost 3…

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines over the second week in April. Human Remains Research Project in Australia Ancient Egyptian Caregivers Does Nut Symbolise the Milky Way? Crafts and Industries Exhibition in Tahrir These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Herita…

How did Psalm 110:1 become so widely used as a messianic prooftext in the New Testament and early Christianity? Part of the explanation may be related to the first century’s Greco-Roman political and religious context. Tune in as we speak with Clint Burnett about his recent book Christ’s Enthronement at God’s Right Hand and its Greco-Roman Cultural…

In Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East (Cambridge UP, 2023), Jae Han investigates how various Late Antique Near Eastern communities—Jews, Christians, Manichaeans, and philosophers—discussed prophets and revelation, among themselves and against each other. Bringing an interdisciplinary, historical approach to the topic, he interrogat…

You Just Become Magic JohnsonAncient & New による

Consisting of about 25,000 verses in Valmiki's Rāmāyaṇa, the story of Rāma was summarized in 704 verses in eighteen chapters in the Rāmopākhyāna, which comprises chapters 258--275 of the Aranyaka Parvan of the great epic Mahābhārata. Peter Scharf's Ramopakhyana - the Story of Rama in the Mahabharata (Routledge, 2023) is suitable for students who ha…

Enlightenment philosopher David Hume enjoyed a tremendous influence on intellectual history. What did Hume believe, why was it so controversial at the time, and why to many does it seem so common-sensical now? What can Humian thought explain, and where does it fall short? To discuss, Aaron Zubia, Assistant Professor at the University of Florida's H…

The concept of the puruṣa, or person, is implicated in a wide range of ancient texts throughout the Indian subcontinent. In Puruṣa: Personhood in Ancient India, published in 2024 by Oxford University Press, Matthew I. Robertson traces the development of this concept from 1500 BCE to 400 CE: in the Ṛg Veda, the Brāhmaṇas, the Upaniṣads, Buddhist Pāl…

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines in the first days of April. Disease in Ancient Egypt Ticketing Machines for Giza Plateau Blame Ancient Egypt for Taxes These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Heritage.aspx https://egyptianstreets.com/tag/cairo/ http://www.egy…

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features,…

Scholars of biblical law widely hold that ancient Israel did not draft law-texts for legislative purposes. Little attention has yet been given to explaining how and when later Judaism did come to regard Torah as legislative. As a result, the current consensus (that Ezra introduced legislative uses of Torah) is based on assumptions which have been n…

Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King (Yale UP, 2024) is the first biography of the great Emperor Ashoka relying solely on his own words. Ashoka sought not only to rule his territory but also to give it a unity of purpose and aspiration, to unify the people of his vastly heterogeneous empire not by a cult of personality but by the cult of an idea—…

I Wanna Be Barefoot MoreAncient & New による

What can we know about the everyday experiences of Christians during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries? How did non-elite men and women, enslaved, freed, and free persons, who did not renounce sex or choose voluntary poverty become Christian? They neither led a religious community nor did they live in entirely Christian settings. In this perio…

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines in the last week in March. March Museum Highlights Irrigation Documentary Planned Ahmed Issa Inspects GEM "Antiquities Clichés " These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Heritage.aspx https://egyptianstreets.com/tag/cairo/ http…

Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundr…

The first ever biography of the founder of Western philosophy Considered by many to be the most important philosopher ever, Plato was born into a well-to-do family in wartime Athens at the end of the fifth century BCE. In his teens, he honed his intellect by attending lectures from the many thinkers who passed through Athens and toyed with the idea…

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey discusses the past and future of citizenship with David Jacobson, Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida (Tampa). They discuss the origins of the concept of citizenship in the ancient Near East a few thousand years ago and how kinship notions shape the debate on …

It Sounds Like A Stephen A Smith RantAncient & New による

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines in the third week in March. Hieroglyphs Step by Step Dr Ramadan Hussein Exhibition in Tahrir Old Kingdom Mastaba in Dashur These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Heritage.aspx https://egyptianstreets.com/tag/cairo/ http://www…

Shakuntala Gawde's book Narrative Analysis of Bhagavata Purana: Selected Episodes from the Tenth Skandha (Dev Publishers, 2023) presents an analytical study of selected narratives of the tenth skandha of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa with the framework of Narratology. It checks the possibilities of interpretation of some popular narratives from Kṛṣṇa saga. …

In Memoriam: David Ferry (1924-2023) In this Recall This Book conversation from 2021, poets David Ferry and Roger Reeves talk about lyric, epic, and the underworld. The underworld, that repository of the Shades of the Dead, gets a lot of traffic from heroes (Gilgamesh, Theseus, Odysseus, Aeneas) and poets (Orpheus, Virgil, Dante). Some come down fo…

Imagine you are sitting at the bedside of a loved one who is in a coma waiting for them to wake up. That's prayer. Another episode for small group formation and anyone else wanting to dive deeper into prayer.

In the middle of the second century AD, Rome was at its prosperous and powerful apex. The emperor Marcus Aurelius reigned over a vast territory that stretched from Britain to Egypt. The Roman-made peace, or Pax Romana, seemed to be permanent. Then, apparently out of nowhere, a sudden sickness struck the legions and laid waste to cities, including R…

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines in the second week in March. Amenhotep III Workshops in Luxor New Secretary General at SCA Archaeological Awareness at Luxor Museum Ancient Egypt Ravaged by Disease These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Heritage.aspx https:/…

In Hollow Men, Strange Women: Riddles, Codes, and Otherness in the Book of Judges (Brill, 2016), Robin Baker provides a masterly reappraisal of Israel's experience during its Settlement of Canaan as narrated in the Book of Judges, which, he argues, subtly encrypts a grim forewarning of Judah's future. In its extensive treatment of otherness, the Bo…

Every pastor, faith formation director, and youth minister knows that what we have been doing in the area of youth formation has not been working, and all the studies support what they already know! So why do we keep doing the same thing? Is there anything we can do? Is there any hope? Maybe it's easier than we think. Join Fr. Kowalczyk and Annie G…

I Didn't Know You Could Loan A Car AT SomebodyAncient & New による

Continuing the theme of prayer, Fr. K discusses the types of prayer and how they relate and build off of each other.

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines in the days leading up to Ramadan. Rameses II Statue Found in Minya Carter Watercolour on Tour Ramesses and the Gold of the Pharaohs in Germany Ramadan Opening Hours These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Heritage.aspx https:…

Several decades of scholarship have demonstrated that Roman thinkers developed in new and stimulating directions the systems of thought they inherited from the Greeks, and that, taken together, they offer many perspectives that are of philosophical interest in their own right. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Philosophy explores a range of such Roman p…

There are few historical figures more integral to South Asian history than Emperor Ashoka, a third-century BCE king who ruled over a larger area of the Indian subcontinent than anyone else before British colonial rule. Ashoka sought not only to rule his territory but also to give it a unity of purpose and aspiration, to unify the people of his vast…

It's… a LOT of chickenAncient & New による

The ancient philosopher Diogenes--nicknamed "The Dog" and decried by Plato as a "Socrates gone mad"--was widely praised and idealized as much as he was mocked and vilified. A favorite subject of sculptors and painters since the Renaissance, his notoriety is equally due to his infamously eccentric behavior, scorn of conventions, and biting aphorisms…

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines over the beginning of March. Papyri and Wasabi Christie's Auction 26th Dynasty Sarcophagus Uncovered Tomb of Nefertari Closes These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Heritage.aspx https://egyptianstreets.com/tag/cairo/ http://…

Dr. James Schroeder joins Fr. K in a discussion on mental health, technology, ultra running, and how it all adds up to living or not living a whole life.For more information on our guest:Jim Schroeder, PhD, is a pediatric psychologist and Vice President of the psychology department at Easterseals Rehabilitation Center in Evansville, Indiana. He res…

The use of disability as a metaphor is ubiquitous in popular culture – nowhere more so than in the myths, stereotypes and tropes around blindness. To be 'blind' has never referred solely to the inability to see. Instead blindness has been used as shorthand for, among other things, a lack of understanding, immorality, closeness to death, special ins…

In this highly original book Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War (Bloomsbury, 2022), Dr. Obert Bernard Mlambo offers a comparative and critical examination of the relationship between military veterans and land expropriation in the client-army of the first-century BC Roman Republic and veteran…

Praying the Bible is not an innate talent. It takes work, practice and instruction. In this Bonus episode, specifically made for those walking in parish small groups, Fr. K gives some helpful tips on how to pray––not study, not memorize, not read––but pray the Bible.

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines over the fourth week of February. El-Anani Candidate for UNESCO Chief Jan Assman The Egyptian Leap Year Solar Alignment at Abu Simbel These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Heritage.aspx https://egyptianstreets.com/tag/cairo/…

I Would Perish QuicklyAncient & New による

"Fascism" is a word ubiquitous in our contemporary political discourse, but few know about its roots in the ancient past or its long, strange evolution to the present. In ancient Rome, the fasces were a bundle of wooden rods bound with a leather cord, in which an axe was placed—in essence, a mobile kit for corporal or capital punishment. Attendants…

The stories that made the Ancient Egypt headlines over the third week of February. When Were Hieroglyphs Invented? Menkaure Project Rejected Neferhotep Tomb in Luxor Now Open These news stories are taken from various public internet sources including: http://english.ahram.org.eg/Portal/9/Heritage.aspx https://egyptianstreets.com/tag/cairo/ http://w…

The letters of Ignatius of Antioch portray Jesus in terms that are both remarkably exalted and shockingly vulnerable. Jesus is identified as God and is the sole physician and teacher who truly reveals the Father. At the same time, Jesus was born of Mary, suffered, and died. Ignatius asserts both claims about Jesus with minimal attempts to reconcile…

Sensory Deprivation BoothAncient & New による

Specifically for the Small Group formation content, this podcast discusses the 5 essential components for starting or restarting a prayer life. You have to determine the following: 1. When are you going to pray? 2. Where are you going to pray? 3. For how long are you going to pray? 4. What are you going to do for prayer? 5. Who is going to keep you…

Though commonly used today to identify a polity that lasted for over a millennium, the label “Byzantine empire” is an anachronism imposed by more recent generations. As Anthony Kaldellis explains in Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium (Harvard University Press, 2019), this has contributed to the denial of the ethnic identity that most deni…