Karen King, a historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School stirred up a hornet’s nest a few weeks ago when she announced she’d discovered a 2nd century papyrus which contained a reference to “Jesus’ wife.” The tiny fragment is barely legible and incomplete so K

 I’ve just finished Elizabeth Kostova’s The Swan Thieves, a book I first mentioned in my blog of 9/28/12. I wrote at the time that the novel had failed to receive the acclaim of her first work, The Historian, but that that knowledge hadn’t dissuaded me from buying it. I’m gla

I’ve mentioned before that Bernard Berenson, American art historian (1865-1959) bemoaned that our culture in the 20th century was galloping toward rampant mediocrity. Given that harsh assessment, I wonder what he would say about the 21st. I suspect he would concur with the opinion o

Recently, NPR reported that a Muslim cleric in Semnan, Iran complained he was knocked down and kicked by a woman whom he’d chastised because of her appearance. “I don’t know what happened,” he said. “All I could feel was the kicks of this woman who was insulting me and attac

While many working folks line up to demonstrate against Wall Street and the increasing wealth of 1% of our population, the rich are not without their defenders. As Nina Easton writes in her September article “Stop Beating Up the Rich,” for Fortune Magazine, the truth about the dwi

An article by Virginia Heffernan in Yahoo. News caught my attention the other day: “Lady Firsters: Why the new sex segregation is great for women.” (9/20/12) The essay struck me as the joyful crowing of an empowered young woman and a part of me was happy, being a war horse of the

The growing power of money in the political process has led to a growing cynicism about the direction of the country. The government seems to be in the hands of the unelected and the principle of a level playing field for a free people in a free society is under attack. While the aver

Todd Rutherford is a man of enterprise. After years of being paid to churn out press releases for a self-publishing marketing service, he decided to go into to business for himself. Given that over 600,000 self-published books appear in print each year in this country, he knew he’d

Each day I take up my writing with a new understanding about time. The race is on. I turned 76 a while ago, not an auspicious number, but as I observed then, still a milestone. Having left the “Third Chapter” of my life — that period between 65-75 when one is retired, health

In this election cycle, I hear talk about a drop in voter turnout. People say they are disillusioned with the political process or aren’t inspired by either party. Unfortunately many citizens take the ballot box for granted, believing the right to vote is guaranteed by the Constitut