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History and Religion

2025-01-14T21:34:12-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Progressive Evangelicalism of Jimmy Carter

Last updated on: January 14, 2025 at 9:34 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100, was a progressive evangelical. He also was the most openly religious president in modern U.S. history. And if you find the term “progressive evangelical” confusing, do keep reading. Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, and probably a lot of you are too young to remember those years. You may know of Carter’s post-presidency work with with Habitat for Humanity, an... Read more

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2024-12-22T18:17:30-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How Christmas Became a Family Holiday

Last updated on: December 22, 2024 at 6:17 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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Today, Christmas is a family holiday. It didn’t used to be. Through much of the history of Christianity, Christmas involved a raucous, multi-day festival of adult entertainment — drinking, dancing, gambling, indulgences and debauchery. The ribaldry got so out of hand that in the 17th century public observance of Christmas was banned in some places, notably England and its colony Massachusetts. (See “When Christmas Was Banned in Boston.”) Today Christmas is the most wholesome of family holidays. The cultural expressions... Read more

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2024-12-07T10:59:48-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Was There a Historical Buddha?

Last updated on: December 7, 2024 at 10:59 am By Barbara O'Brien

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Here’s a question for Bodhi Day. Was the Buddha a verifiable historical person? And was his enlightenment a historical event? The plain truth is that there is no documentation of the life of the Buddha outside Buddhist scriptures. And the earliest physical evidence that there was ever such a person dates to the reign of Ashoka, about 268 to 232 BCE. Dates of the life of the Buddha vary, but they range from about 567 to 487 BCE to as... Read more

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2024-12-03T18:29:55-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Buddhist Holidays in December: A Short and Confusing Guide

Last updated on: December 3, 2024 at 6:29 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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The world’s many religions observe many holy days in December other than Christmas and Hanukkah. One December Buddhist holiday is Bodhi Day, which commemorates the enlightenment of the Buddha. (Bodhi is a Sanskrit word that means “awakening.”) Just about any web search will tell you that Bodhi Day is December 8. But before you send a Happy Bodhi Day card to your Thai friends, note that this particular date and holiday generally applies only to Japanese Buddhism. In some parts... Read more

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2024-11-27T07:53:06-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving

Last updated on: November 27, 2024 at 7:53 am By Barbara O'Brien

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President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a U.S. national holiday for the first time in 1863. This was at the height of the American Civil War, which began in April 1861 and ended in April 1865. It may seem odd that Thanksgiving had suddenly become important in such a tragic time. But President Lincoln had reasons to be thankful. Through 1861 and 1862 the Union lost more battles than it won, and what victories it could claim came at a shocking... Read more

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2024-11-23T06:54:49-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Thanksgiving Myth

Last updated on: November 23, 2024 at 6:54 am By Barbara O'Brien

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The Thanksgiving myth is the Thanksgiving story that we Americans were taught in school as history. But the story as commonly told isn’t exactly true. And for some Native Americans, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning. The traditional story is about the Pilgrims, who had sailed to the New World from Europe. Their ship the Mayflower landed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in November 1620. The Pilgrims struggled to survive the winter, but they received help from the local Native Americans.... Read more

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2024-11-18T19:41:31-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Ashoka’s Edict on Religious Tolerance

Last updated on: November 18, 2024 at 7:41 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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The first person in history known to have promoted religious tolerance was Ashoka the Great. Ashoka was emperor of a large portion of Asia from about 268 BCE until his death in 232 BCE. In honor of the International Day of Tolerance — November 16, as designated by the United Nations — l’d like to revisit his edict on religious tolerance, which is as relevant to us now as it was then. Ashoka the Great ruled the Mauryan Empire, which... Read more

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2024-11-15T12:03:52-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Buddhism and the California Gold Rush: Wild West Dharma

Last updated on: November 15, 2024 at 12:03 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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Buddhism and the California Gold Rush may be two things that don’t seem to go together. But it was the Gold Rush that first brought Buddhism to California. The California Gold Rush began in 1848, when gold was discovered at a sawmill north of San Francisco. The first Buddhist temple in North America — and possibly the first outside of Asia, as far as I know — was built in San Francisco in 1853. And the second event came about... Read more

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2024-10-15T17:54:40-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Law and Morality: Which Came First?

Last updated on: October 15, 2024 at 5:54 pm By Barbara O'Brien

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There’s a common assumption that laws are based on morality and morality comes from religion. Therefore, laws have a religious basis. Further, whatever is widely considered to be immoral ought to be illegal. In truth, not all manner of things immoral are illegal (for example, lying to your spouse about where you were last night). It’s possible that there are behaviors that are illegal but not immoral, although off the top of my head I can’t think of a good... Read more

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Axial Age

2024-09-28T07:13:13-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Who Were the Aryans?

Last updated on: September 28, 2024 at 7:13 am By Barbara O'Brien

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Who were the Aryans? The Aryans were an ancient people who spoke Sanskrit and gave us what are believed to be the world’s oldest living scriptures, the Vedas of Hinduism. They were “pastoral,” the anthropoligsts say, meaning they herded livestock. They were nomads who left us no cities to excavate or great monuments to admire. The literature they left us suggests they were a patriarchal and sometimes violent people. They prized their horses and probably introduced the horse-drawn chariot to... Read more

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