Heretical musings on religion and culture from a literary scholar
As a theology major with his own plans to write bible-based apocalyptic fiction, I was excited to see a new TV show out with some great actors. On the one hand, the same topics are recycled so blatantly from other sources it's cliche on cliche... -A handsome FBI agent called to Israel to chase down a murderer who stole an antiquity... -An attractive red haired archaeologist (also American of course) on a dig under the Temple Mount looking ...
***Oops - the movie adaptation of Paradise Lost starring Bradley Cooper has been canned as of February, 2012! It's a crying shame...Hope they revive it down the road.*** For the past decade, traditionally marginalized or "evil" characters have gained the limelight - witches, vampires and werewolves have changed from creatures of the night to tragically misunderstood victims of humanity's bitter prejudice. At the same time, Western humanist values caused us to champion rebel heroes - heroes ...
King David (who first defeated Goliath, stole his sword, then become a violent kingly soldier) soaked in the blood of battle, one day happened to see his fellow warrior and friend Uriah's wife Bathsheba bathe in her courtyard from the roof of his palace. He had her brought to his chambers and had sex with her, resulting in a pregnancy. Informed that her husband was Uriah, David summoned Uriah from battle to meet him, suggesting that ...
Something interesting I discovered today was the link between the David and Goliath story and Homer's Iliad. I've already come to understand how much of the Old Testament (especially the flood story, but there are others) were lifted from Sumerian stories (Abraham was raised in, and left behind, a highly developed Sumerian culture before founding his new religious movement). But I hadn't considered the extent to which Old Testament scribes borrowed from successful Greek Literature such ...
Prepare to be amazed. Today I've been looking for pictures of Satan, and pictures of Garuda, for two separate art projects. What I'd never before realized, however, is that medieval depictions of The Devil are basically direct copies of much earlier (I presume) pictures of Garuda - the hindu flying Deity (half man, half eagle) that the God Vishnu flies around on. I'm guessing Garuda is first because A) Hinduism is older and B) they ...
If you're interested in religious mythology, astrological symbolism, or supernatural folklore, grab my book Gods of Myth and Man. You can go buy it on Amazon.
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