Ya Allah: On Culture and Calling God
So here's the deal with my sharing posts referring to God as Allah on social media. I'm not gonna repeat the stats in detail about it being the Arabic word, known to be used in…
Category: Miscellaneous Nonfiction
Roots: Insights from the Tree Alphabet of Old Ireland: Introduction
Fogwr gaithi trie flod flescadtforglas neol,essa abhai, essnad ealao,alaind ceoul The voice of the wind against the branchy woodupon the deep-blue sky:falls of the river,the note of the swan,best of all music ~ From Lebor…
Heroes of the Celts: Cu Chulainn and Fionn Mac Cumhaill
The Celts were a group of people who lived across a great deal of Europe during the early middle ages. They were a pretty self-sufficient group who had their own pantheon of gods and great…
God’s Good Chaos: A Reflection on the Problem of Evil
The problem of Evil is one of most staggering dilemmas for the human mind. If we define it as such, then we acknowledge a spiritual component, and yet if we do that, we also acknowledge…
Dominicans: A Short History of the “Dogs of God”
The month of August in the Catholic Church is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which makes it perfect for the biggest names in the Dominican order to have feast days in this month.…
Water and the Spirit: A Catholic Perspective on Baptism
I had an interesting discussion about Baptism and some of its implications from a Catholic perspective, so I thought I'd expand upon it as a general overview. Keep in mind, different denominations have sometimes radically…
Edward VIII: A Royal Abdication
At 10:00 AM on December 10, 1936, Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom, the British Dominions, and Emperor of India signed the Instrument of Abdication in which he irrevocably renounced all claims to the…
Abraham’s Sacrifice: Reflections from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
In the past, I’ve had some interesting conversations about the controversial story of Abraham/Ibrahim being asked by God to sacrifice his beloved son, which appears (with the variation of Isaac or Ishmael) in both the…
Disaster at Sea: The Loss of the White Ship
While my main focus of interest is usually Lord Nelson and his Navy, today I'm writing about a ship of a very different era: la Blanche-Nef, aka, the White Ship, which sank during the twelfth…
Gargoyles: The Stones That Speak
Gothic Architecture has shaped our view of the Medieval period. It is my belief that church-building achieved its highest point during the Gothic period, and no Gothic structure would be complete without the classic Gothic…