Afternoon Links — 9.23.10

Classics scholar and translator Sarah Ruden explains what she learned when reading St. Paul against the classics . For example, “there’s a single civilization, and it moves toward greater idealism . . . . You have all these philosophies arising from the ancient world as educated people struggle against the brutality of idol worship, of superstition, of all of this fairly crude traditional religion. And these aspirations find a home in Christianity. And it’s not only that the elite find their spiritual home in Christianity; it’s that the common people do, too, because this new religion is providing new possibilities for ways to live.”

Muslims may have to pray in Orthodox churches in Moscow, since the million Muslims in the city are served by just four mosques, reports Asia News, though an expert on Islam in Russia disputes the numbers and the need. An official of the Moscow Patriarchate Department  says that “the doors of our churches are open to our Muslim brothers.”

New Scientist explains  10 lucky breaks for humanity , without which we wouldn’t be here. For example: “We wouldn’t exist if our cosmic neighbourhood had been just a bit less dense than average during the tumultuous moments after the big bang” and “Why isn’t the cosmos a sea of bland radiation? The triumph of matter suggests that the laws of physics are biased.”

David Livingstone’s African diaries , written on scraps of newspaper with ink made from berries, are about to be read for the first time, thanks to multispectral imaging enhancement.

The historian Andrew Roberts comments on “A new book to be published next week entitled  MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 , by the distinguished British historian Keith Jeffery, [which] reveals the existence of Operation Embarrass, a plan to try to prevent Jews getting into Palestine in 1946-‘48 using disinformation and propaganda but also explosive devices placed on ships.”