Résultats Éditeur "Charles River Editors" dans Religion et spiritualité

The Holy Grail is one of the most famous relics of Christianity, but also one of the least understood. Today, it is mostly associated with Christ's Last Supper, possibly used during the meal as a serving cup. The gospels in the New Testament specifically mention the Holy Chalice that Jesus used to serve wine, so it's no surprise that images of the Holy Grail depict a similar kind of cup.

The US Census Bureau defines the Midwest as consisting of a dozen states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Outsiders often deride the region, and for many who have never been there, America's heartland is just a bunch of "flyover states" with little influence, little history, and little interest.

As one of the most influential and recognizable religious figures in history, Martin Luther (1483-1546) continues to impact the world over 550 years after his death. Luther was a German priest and theologian whose writings and teachings sparked the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century, creating one of the greatest schisms in the history of the Catholic Church and touching off religious turmoil and bloodshed that would engulf Europe for the next two centuries.

The essence of the event commonly known as the Roswell Crash is that someone saw something in the sky during the summer of 1947. Days later someone else found some odd foil, paper, and wood on the grounds of a ranch in the New Mexico desert nearly a hundred miles from Roswell. A day or two after that, the debris was taken to a military airbase in Roswell, New Mexico, where it remained overnight before the military flew it to another airbase in Ohio.

Centuries before the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, Jews settled on the land to escape persecution at the hands of the Babylonians and Romans, meaning the area and its arid environment brought inhabitants precisely because it wasn't an attractive or resource rich area. In fact, the city fated to become the second holiest city in Islam earned that spot simply by straddling trade routes to the religious city of Mecca, which brought traders and pilgrims in large enough numbers to make it a trade center.

A serial killer in earth-gray uniform and polished jackboots, Eichmann found an unprecedented opportunity for unleashing his homicidal impulses during the Final Solution from 1942-1945, at the height of the Nazi Third Reich's rule in Germany.

The life story of Jesus of Nazareth, considered by billions of Christians to be the messiah prophesized in the Old Testament of the Bible, is perhaps the most famous in history. Described in detail in the New Testament, Jesus comes from both divine yet humble roots, born in a manger to a young woman, but in time he leads a fervent following as tales of his miracles spread across the Holy Land.

The Greek god Hades is something of an enigma. On the one hand, people can view him through a lens that was a byproduct of the Christian tradition: as a terrifying lord of death seated upon his ebony throne, an unseen force of power moving through the world. Certainly, many of the ancient Greeks themselves saw the god in this light.

The story of the ancient Israelites in Egypt is one of the most famous stories in the world, and one of the most contentious from a historical standpoint. Today, most people know about the relationship between the ancient Israelites and the Egyptians from the Old Testament book of Exodus, and the numerous feature films that often depict the dealings between the two peoples in contentious ways.

In 1933, British author James Hilton introduced the world to a new destination for journeys of the imagination: the hidden valley of Shangri-La. In doing so, Hilton built upon pre-existing fantasies, stereotypes and archetypes, many of which were centuries old, but Hilton also created something new in the form of a vision which captured the imagination of his contemporaries and has remained ever since.

The concept of a future day when the whole of humanity will stand before God in order to be judged for their actions upon Earth is pervasive in Western literature, mostly owing to its roots in the Judeo-Christian worldview, but such a religious concept is not limited to the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. In fact, it seems to be much more deeply seated in the human psyche because it appears in many disparate religious traditions.

John Calvin (1509-1564) was one of the most important religious figures of the last millennium and is an instantly recognizable name across the globe. An influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation, the period when he was most active (namely during the 1530s and 1540s) was marked by increased complexity and the diffusion of the Reformation into several branches. Alongside Martin Luther, Calvin was one of the central Reformers.

In the West, Buddhism is a religion that everyone has heard of but few truly understand aside from Buddhists themselves. For almost 2,500 years, Buddhism has been dominant on the Indian subcontinent. Buddhism is based on the traditions, beliefs, and practices that came about from the teachings of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), the Sansrkit word for "the awakened one."

In the years leading up to 2012, there has been much interest in the Maya calendar. Largely, this is because the calendar will complete its 5,200-year cycle on December 21, 2012, and this auspicious event has been misinterpreted as signaling the end of the world.

That Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 4 BC-30 CE) was crucified is the closest to a historical fact anyone can say about him. Biblical scholars have spent centuries debating the details of what Jesus did and said, but this crude fact - that Jesus suffered capital punishment at the hands of the Roman authority by crucifixion - is accepted by the overwhelming majority of scholars. That there once was a cross where Jesus suffered and died is, therefore, the sequential logical affirmation.

Nowadays, the pope is synonymous with unparalleled piety, compassion, and benevolence. To many, the pope is the embodiment of godly love in its purest form. This is a far cry from how things were just a few centuries ago. Back in the day, the most notorious of popes were nothing more than power-hungry dictators and cutthroat political experts. Indeed, by the late 14th century, tensions within the Church reached a breaking point, resulting in the infamous split of the Catholic Church, one that saw multiple popes fighting to knock the others off their thrones.

At a time in antiquity when most of Europe was covered with forests and wandering tribes, Mexico had already developed complex civilizations, beginning with the Olmecs and followed by the Maya, a civilization with advanced knowledge of medicine, engineering and astronomy. The Maya calculated the precession of the equinoxes and cycles of the Pleiades, on which they based their year, since they believed they had come from that constellation.

During the Age of Exploration, Native American tribes fell victim to European conquerors seeking legendary cities made of gold and other riches, attempts that were often made in vain. And yet of all the empires that were conquered across the continent, the one that continues to be most intimately associated with legends of gold and hidden riches is the Inca Empire.

Aside from Jesus himself, one of the most important and best known individuals of the New Testament is Paul the Apostle, formerly Saul of Tarsus. A “Hebrew born of Hebrews”, Paul’s conversion to Christianity was unquestionably one of the seminal events in the history of the religion, because it would be Paul who spread Christianity across much of the Mediterranean.

Centuries before the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, the leaders of Mecca established that their city was the pre-eminent holy site in western Arabia and established a truce for pilgrims to the city. One effect of this was that Mecca became a center for what might today be described as tourism. Of course, Mecca is now best known for being Islam's holiest city, revered as the birthplace of Muhammad and the site where Allah first revealed the Qu'ran to him. Within Mecca is the Ka'aba, a building housed within the Al-Masjid al-Haram (Great Mosque), considered the holiest site.