Robert Louis Wilken

From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East By William Dalrymple Henry Holt. 483 pp. $30 At the end of the sixth century a monk from Palestine by the name of John Moschos set out from the flourishing monastic world in the Judean desert east of Jerusalem to visit the . . . . Continue Reading »

For two generations Christian theology has been engaged in a fundamental rethinking of Christianity’s relation to Judaism and to the Jewish people. This work has been carried out by biblical scholars, historians, theologians, educators, and bishops and other leaders of Christian communions. It . . . . Continue Reading »

The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336 By Caroline Walker Bynum Columbia University Press, 368 pages, $29.95 In canto fourteen of the Paradiso, Dante writes, When, glorified and sanctified, the flesh is once again our dress, our persons shall in being all complete, please . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the lessons read at the Easter vigil is the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. It is a good story, told well and not without irony. Each year when it is read I can hardly conceal a smile as the author lists (and not just once) the titles of the king’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Robert Markus investigates the shifting spheres of sacred and . . . . Continue Reading »

It is easy to get religion, something else to hold on to . . . . Continue Reading »

Of the several paths that lead to virtue, the broadest and the most promising is the way of imitation. By observing the lives of holy men and women and imitating their deeds we become virtuous. Before we can become doers we first must be spectators. Origen, the fecund Christian teacher from ancient . . . . Continue Reading »

For many Jews and some Christians the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is seen as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. In particular, they have reference to the oracles in the exilic and post-exilic prophets about the return of the exiles from . . . . Continue Reading »