Late antiquity was one of the most dramatic periods in our history – a turbulent time in which nations and peoples rose and fell, vying for power and territory in a merciless fight for prominence...
Mention medieval scholarship , and the first image that most people will have would probably be that of a monk with a quill in his hand and an open book before him. The most well-known scholars of...
Researchers in Israel believe that they have found evidence that a biblical king was a historic figure. They believe that a damaged inscribed tablet known as the Mesha Stele offers proof that a...
St. George is perhaps one of Christianity’s most famous saints, and is best-known as the patron saint of England. Apart from this well-known fact, St. George is also the patron saint of a number of...
My pious Baptist grandmother once shockingly confessed, at the ripe old age of 93, that she didn’t want to go to heaven. “Why,” we asked? “Well, I think it will be rather boring just sitting around...
Located on the Horn of Africa, the ancient Ethiopian kingdom of Axum (also spelled Aksum) played a significant role in international relations around the time of the first millennium. At its height,...
...not [to] me. My mother gave me life... The disciples said to Jesus,... deny. Mary is (not?) worthy of it. ... Jesus said to them, "My wife... she is able to be my disciple... Let wicked people...
Hypatia was a philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer who lived in a man’s world in 4th century Alexandria. Times were turbulent and the brutal and sudden end to Hypatia’s life shows just how...
The Duk Duk is a secret society of the Tolai people in Papua New Guinea. This ancient secret sect has played an important social role for centuries and continues to operate today, although with a...
One thing that can be said about the history of Christianity is that it has always been multicultural and multi-ethnic. Christianity is not tied to any one ethnic group or cultural tradition but has...
The Romans were a polytheistic people who worshiped a great number of gods. Nevertheless, the most important gods in the Roman pantheon are the twelve gods and goddesses of the Dii Consentes , who...
Legends say Kebokwe’s Cave got its name from a witch who practiced black magic. When the sorceress was thrown from the hills near the cave, her magic is said to have allowed her to gently land on the...
Louis I (byname the Pious, the Fair, or the Debonair) was a King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor belonging to the Carolingian Dynasty. He lived between the 8 th and 9 th centuries AD and reigned...
A highly-thought provoking report published in the October edition of Christian Post highlights that “the number of witches (and wiccans) has dramatically increased since the 1990s, to the degree...
The Yazidis (also spelled as Yezidis) are a religious minority found primarily in northern Iraq. In recent years, the Yazidis have received the attention of the international media as a result of...
The Children’s Crusade is one of the more unusual events that occurred in Medieval England. In the year 1212, tens of thousands of self-proclaimed, unarmed crusading children set out from northern...
Although many of us now associate hell with Christianity, the idea of an afterlife existed much earlier. Greeks and Romans, for example, used the concept of Hades, an underworld where the dead lived...
Flying through the skies on a broomstick, the popular image of a witch is as a predominantly female figure – so much so that the costume has become the go-to Halloween outfit for women and girls...
Hallowe’en, a shortened form of "All Hallows' Evening" is an echo of Celtic harvest festivals of pre-Christian Europe. Observed now in several countries around the world, it is the evening before ‘...
In archaeology, anything from the past can be of great importance, including artifacts that may seem rather small and unremarkable at first glance. For example, archaeologists have just announced the...
The great goat-headed, horned and winged beast towered over them all. Seated on a throne, with children gazing at him adoringly, as if waiting for his words of wisdom, Baphomet made his very long-...
According to the Gospel of John, Jesus was stabbed in his side by a lance whilst hanging from the cross. As a result, this weapon is believed to possess supernatural powers and it became an important...
What if the Crusades’ history was told from an Arab perspective? In fact, in 2016 al-Jazeera TV did just that. It released a four-episode documentary on the Crusades, and the trailer introduced the...
Although most mainstream scientists and most of the developed world now accept the theory of evolution and the scientifically established age of Earth and the universe, there is still a group of...