The First Christmas

Click here (atlastours) for a brief overview about the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the ancient-traditional site of Jesus' birth...

And click here (NYTimes) to learn about a recent international decision concerning the church...

Why do you think that religious pilgrimage to holy sites like this plays such an important (aspirational, even if not actual) role for believers? What does 'going there' achieve for the pilgrim?

African Divination

 

Click here (YouTube) to watch a short video from UNESCO about Ifa divination among the Yoruba people of Central Africa...

How do the actions/behaviors of the Babalawo (divination priest) generally compare/contrast with those of the Pythia? the Biblical prophets?

Know Thyself

Click here (delphioracle.net) to submit your questions to the (virtual) oracle at Delphi...

Do the responses give you answers? or more questions??

Ezekiel's Temple Vision

 

Click here (YouTube) to view a computer-generated description of Ezekiel's visionary temple, described in great detail within Chapters 40-48 of the prophetic book...

You thoughts about the size of the complex? It's symmetry? It's potential meanings for an exiled community?

Legacy of the Drum

Click here (sciencenordic.com) to learn about wooden drum fragments discovered in Greenland, which provide answers (and more questions) about the origins of this ancient, often shamanic, instrument...

Does music ever put you into something approaching an altered state of consciousness??

Ezekiel's 'Christian' Creatures

Click here (catholic-resources), and follow the links, to view various Christian interpretations of Ezekiel's prophetic-call vision as it later became applied to the Christian Scriptures' four Gospel writers...

Any favorites? What does such iconographic appropriation suggest about the conceptual fluidity of the prophetic texts?

Venerating Ezekiel

 

Click here (YouTube/NewYorkTimes) to view a short video concerning the traditional site of the prophet Ezekiel's tomb...

What prospects might this holy place hold for inter-religious dialogue and harmony? What possibilities might it entail for inter-religious strife?

Of Artifacts and Artifice

Click here (jewishvirtuallibrary) to read about the object pictured above: an ivory pomegranate once believed to come from Jerusalem's first temple of Solomon, which still stood at the time of the prophet Jeremiah...

Why do you think the public is generally so fascinated with such archaeological 'finds'? What motives (beyond the financial, of course) might be involved with their production/alteration?

Agayuliyararput

Click here (Smithsonian), and follow the links, to browse an exhibit featuring Yup'ik Eskimo masks from Southwest Alaska...

What general (as well as particular) properties of masks would make them effective tools for a shamanic culture? 

Jerusalem's Competition

Small silver calf and clay shrine, from Canaanite Ashkelon

Click on the following links (bibleplaces.com) to gain quick pictorial overviews of two sites in the southern kingdom of Judah that were operative, and evidently acceptable to a significant portion of the population, including around the time of Jeremiah:

Arad
Beersheba

What would have been some of the social benefits of centralized worship at Jerusalem, and Jerusalem alone (as the Bible frequently demands)? What would have been some of the drawbacks?

Suffering Shamans

All photographs the property of http://www.joeyl.com

Click here (joeyl.com) for a dramatic photo-essay on the Mentawai people of Indonesia, including their modern-day shamans...

Your thoughts/observations about some of the social dynamics involved with this community?

Wisdom of the East?

Click here (santacruz.patch) to read about the role of mind-altering substances within ancient Eastern religious traditions...

(cocktail party factoid: a slang term for cannabis, 'ganga', comes from Ganjika, a Sanskrit word meaning 'of the Ganges' River, where the plant was plentiful)

Your thoughts about the (ir)relevance of such substances for religious experience? 

Jerusalem's Waterworks

Click here (YouTube) for an informative (if somewhat noisy) overview of King Hezekiah's Tunnel under Jerusalem, which the 8th Century BCE Judahite monarch built to withstand the looming Assyrian onslaught.

This project was undertaken around the very same time of the prophet Isaiah's oracles in Chpts. 36 & 37 (on your midterm). I wonder if Isaiah ever got a look at this for himself...

The Oldest 'Bible'

 
Click here (wsrp) for a brief introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the famous ancient library of Hebrew & Aramaic Biblical (and non-Biblical) texts...

What glimpses might we gain into the Qumran community that copied and preserved these texts, according to the website?

Performative Shamanism

 

Click here (YouTube) to watch a short but fascinating video featuring a Korean shaman (mudang) exorcism...

What dramatic actions/behaviors does the mudang undertake? What might these signify symbolically? What are your observations regarding the sensory surroundings of this ritual? Does this spiritual encounter entail a commercial aspect?

Northern Israel's 'Sinful' Sanctuaries

Click here (biblewalks) to view the archaeological remains of King Jeroboam-I's religious sanctuary at Dan (1-Kings 12), a site that was almost certainly dedicated to Yahweh, even though the (Jerusalem-centric) Bible severely criticizes it...

What might Scripture read like if the Northern Kingdom's version of events had survived?

Assyrian Shock & Awe

 

Click here (YouTube) to view a brief collage of ancient Assyrian stone reliefs, which decorated the palaces of the mighty kings during the days of Israel's 'writing' prophets...

What kind of societal values would such artwork have projected, both to fellow Assyrians and to other nations/peoples in the Ancient Near East?