The mishnah at the bottom of yesterday’s daf listed a number of texts that one is forbidden to write on hol hamoed: Torah scrolls, tefillin andmezuzahs. The presumption is that whoever is writing these texts is doing so in order to sell them, and we’ve seen already that commerce is
One of the great political fights in medieval Christendom affected St. Thomas Aquinas’s own studies as a youngster. A fortuitous military conflict between Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX spilling into the abbey of Monte Cassino, where Aquinas was doing his elementary studies, led to his parents sending him
All Hallows Evening Prayer is a service of worship in the evening for all pilgrims on the journey to the heavenly city. Agape, the kind of love which Christians are expected to love others and one another is love with a difference. Quite a difference in fact. The Scripture reading
By Rob Renfroe Covid vaccination for United Methodists in the United States is an issue of choice – not of convenience. Inoculation availability in the U.S. is widespread and accessible. This is not the case for all United Methodists in other countries. While it can be hard for urban and
The ELCA has introduced a study guide for its newest social statement, “Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action.” The guide features six interactive and flexible (45-, 60- or 90-minute) sessions that can be customized for in-person gatherings or virtual meetings. Each session incorporates prayers, videos, engaging activities, Scripture
Beginning in January, the worldwide Sunday School and home Sunday curriculum for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—“Come, Follow Me”—turned to the Hebrew Bible or, as Latter-day Saints and other Christians typically refer to it, the Old Testament. Why? Why bother? Isn’t the Hebrew Bible sometimes difficult to
Can we separate an artist from their art? A scholar from their scholarship? Can we appreciate a wonderful book written by a terrible person? These are some of the deeply painful questions we ask today, especially in the age of #MeToo and cancel culture, and the seemingly never-ending revelations of
Setting the Scene: Plague as Context and Text Julian of Norwich (1342-1429) is one of those remarkable medieval women mystics like Hildegaard of Bingen (1095-1179), Hadewijch of Antwerp (thirteenth century), Marguerite Porete (1250-1310), Angela of Foligno (1248-1309), and Catherine of Sienna (1347-1380), all instructors in the mystical life, speaking of and