ReligionForBreakfast
What is the History of Magic Wands?
updated
Brought to you by the Religion and Environment Story Project at Boston University with the support of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
Thanks to @TorqueTales for the footage of the Hadimba Temple.
Further Reading:
Taylor, Wieren, Zaleha, "Lynn White Jr. and the greening-of-religion hypothesis," Conservation Biology, 30 (5), 2016.
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Bibliography:
PBS, “Religiously, Congress doesn’t reflect modern America, Pew finds”, Jan 5, 2023. link, accessed Jan 17, 2023.
PPRI (Public Religion Research Institute), “PRRI 2021 American Values Atlas: Religious Affiliation Updates and Trends: White Christian Decline Slows, Unaffiliated Growth Levels Off”, April 27, 2022, link, accessed Jan 17, 2023
Pew Research Center, Jeff Diamant, “Faith on the Hill: The religious composition of the 188th Congress”, Jan 3, 2023, link, accessed Jan 17, 2023
RNS (Religious News Service), Jana Riess, “The ‘nones’ are growing — and growing more diverse”, March 24, 2021, link, accessed Jan 17, 2023
Madrid, R., Merolla, J.L., Yanez Ruiz, A., et al., “The Relevance of Religion for Political Office: Voter Bias Toward Candidates from Different Religious Backgrounds”, Polit Behav 44, 981–1001 (2022), link, accessed Jan 27, 2023
Hogg, M. A., & Abrams, D. (2007), “Intergroup behavior & social identity”, in M. A. Hogg & J. Cooper (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of social psychology, SAGE Publications Inc.
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Tibetan Buddhism is a unique expression of Buddhism that has developed over centuries in the high Himalayan region of Tibet and the surrounding areas. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, is perhaps the most well-known figure associated with Tibetan Buddhism. In this video, we will explore the key teachings and practices of Tibetan Buddhism, including tantric meditation, compassion, and the concept of emptiness.
Special thanks to Dr. Connie Kassor for co-writing this episode. Follow her on Twitter at: @constancekassor
To learn more, check out Dr. Aaron Proffitt's introduction over at: @AmericanBuddhistStudyCenter
youtube.com/watch?v=SxQ64mX2L48
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Explore the concept of Yin and Yang - the ancient Chinese philosophy that highlights the balance of opposing forces in the universe. In this video, we'll delve into the meaning of Yin and Yang, how they are represented in the famous Taijitu symbol, and their impact on health, relationships, and the natural world. From the yin-yang balance of light and dark, to hot and cold, and masculine and feminine, this video will provide a comprehensive look at one of the most fundamental beliefs in Chinese philosophy.
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Biblically-accurate Clippy was used with permission from the original artist. Check out the work by Evangeline Gallagher on Twitter: @egallagher_art
Angel animations by @ECHenry
You may have seen the memes about "biblically-accurate angels." These memes often emphasize the weird, visionary creatures mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Technically, though, 'biblically-accurate' angels also just look like humans.
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In this video, we explore the Proto-Indo-European Sky Father. A deity revered by many cultures throughout history. From the Greek Zeus to the Roman Jupiter, the Sky Father god represented the celestial day-lit sky. Hosted by Dr. Andrew M. Henry.
Bibliography:
David Anthony, "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language," 2007.
Ranko Matasovic, "A Reader in Comparative Indo-European Religion," 2018.
Mallory and Adams, "The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World," 2006.
West, Indo-European Poetry and Myth, Oxford Press, 2007.
The thumbnail for this video was generated with the help of DALL-E 2.
Wuwei is a core concept in Daoist philosophy that involves letting go of control and letting things happen naturally. It's often translated as "non-action," but it's not about being inactive or passive. Instead, it's about aligning with the flow of the universe and acting in a way that is effortless and harmonious. In this video, we explore the meaning and significance of wuwei and how Daoist philosophers interpreted it. Whether you're familiar with Daoism or just curious about this ancient Chinese philosophy, this video will provide a deep understanding of wuwei and its role in cultivating a balanced and fulfilling life.
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00:00 Recap of Jesus' Aramaic Name
00:26 The Quranic Exception: Isa
2:31 Ad break
3:41 Safaitic overview
4:52 Inscription overview
7:29 Etymology of 'sy
10:10 Conclusion
To learn more about this research:
Al-Jallad. 20201. The Pre-Islamic Divine Name 'sy and the Background of the Qur'anic Jesus, with Ali al-Manaser
Thebes was once ancient Egypt's capital and the cultic center of its most prominent god: Amun. It also was home to one of the largest temple precincts in the ancient world: Karnak.
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Bibliography:
Lukas Licka, “Approaches to the Extramission Postulate in 13th Century Theories of Vision,” in Medieval Perceptual Puzzles, Brill 2020.
Roland Betancourt, “Why Sight is Not Touch: Reconsidering the Tacility of Vision in Byzantium,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 70, Dec 2016.
Van de Ven, Zeelenberg, and Pieters, “Warding off the Evil Eye: When the Fear of Being Envied Increases Prosocial Behavior,” Psychological Science, Volume 21, Issue 11.
Antioch mosaic: see Levi, The Evil Eye and the Lucky Hunchback," Antioch Mosaic Pavements, 28-34
Gadi Sagiv, “Dazzling Blue: Color Symbolism, Kabbalistic Myth, and the Evil Eye in Judaism,” Numen 64 (2017) 183-208.
Giacomantonio et. al., “The evil eye: Eye gaze and competitiveness in social decision making,” European Journal of Social Psychology, August 2017.
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What was the actual name of Jesus? Many people know that Jesus's actual Aramaic name was something like: Yeshua. But that is only partially correct. The answer is a little bit more complicated because the final syllable in the original name is a sound that doesn't appear in the English language.
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00:00 Intro: Jesus' Greek name
1:17 The two Joshuas
3:08 Ad break
4:22 The Ayin
5:37 The Sneaky "A"
7:24 The Greek Transliteration of Yeshu'
9:00 The Journey from Iesous to Jesus
10:00 Yeshu or Yeshu(a)?
Bibliography:
Richard Steiner, “A-coloring Consonants and Furtive Patah in Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic According to the Tiberian Masorah.
Roey Gafter, “Pharyngeal Beauty and Depharyngealized Geek: Performing Ethnicity on Israeli Reality TV,” in Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race, 2016.
Daniel Lefkowitz, Words and Stones: The Politics of Language and Identity in Israel.
Eran Shuali, "Yesu or Yesua'? A Sketch of hte History of Jesus' Names in Hebrew from Antiquity to the Present,"
Matthew Mitchell, "Matthew 26:73 and the Case of the Disappearing Galilean Accent," JBL 139, no. 1 (2020): 107-124
Jonathan Watt, "Of Gutturals and Galileans: The Two Slurs of Matthew 26:73," Diglossia.
Daoism, sometimes spelled as Taoism, is a religious and philosophical tradition indigenous to China. But what is Daoism?
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Bibliography:
There are several excellent intro books available. Here are a few I consulted for this video:
Ronnie Littlejohn, Daoism: An Introduction, 2009.
Livia Kohn, Introducing Daoism, 2008.
James Miller, Daoism: A Beginner's Guide, 2003.
Stephen Prothero, Religion Matters: An Introduction to the World's Religions, 2020.
00:00 Intro
1:00 The Dao Explained
2:53 The Dao De Jing
7:43 The Zhuangzi
12:00 "Religious" Daoism Intro
13:40 Tianshi dao
15:07 Quanzhen dao
16:13 Daoist Canon
16:45 Daoist Deities
19:05 Self-Cultivation Techniques
21:58 21st-century Daoism
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Check out Andrew Tobolowsky's book "The Myth of the 12 Tribes of Israel" here: amzn.to/3TAJ3fM
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Iceland is one of the Nordic countries, which are famous for being overwhelmingly secular countries. But is this true for Iceland?
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Mark 10:25 says: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." This is one of the most famous sayings of Jesus. But did we translate his saying correctly?
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00:00 Intro
00:52 Phases of the Egyptian Language
2:19 Dialects of Coptic
4:36 Origins of Coptic Script
7:55 Genres of Coptic Lit
12:22 Later History
Some of the ideas in this episode are original to Dr. Connor Wood's research. You can find out more by checking out his papers below:
"Musical Bonds Are Orthogonal to Symbolic Language and Norms" : cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/musical-bonds-are-orthogonal-to-symbolic-language-and-norms/4DEB19B642A5A673C19A39DF615717A3
"Antistructure and the Roots of Religious Experience:" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/zygo.12578?af=R
"Religion, Evolution, and the Basis of Institutions: The Institutional Cognition Model of Religion:" degruyter.com/document/doi/10.26613/esic.2.2.89/html
Check out his blog Science on Religion at: patheos.com/blogs/scienceonreligion
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Watch a tour of Senkoji Temple in Japan at @Yukendoit : youtube.com/watch?v=l4ZIQZiSlXQ&t=1s
Watch the Nangsa Obum Tibetan Opera @tibetanlanguageforum : youtube.com/watch?v=3yISH1WXGdo&t=981s
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Sources:
Heidi Wendt, "At the Temple Gates: The Religion of Freelance Experts in the Early Roman Empire," 2016
David Frankfurter, "Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic," 2019
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Valentinianism was a prominent variety of early Christianity starting in the 2nd century CE. Some call it a form of Gnosticism. But what is Valentinianism all about?
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Further reading:
Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski, "Valentinus’ Legacy and Polyphony of Voices" [2022]
Geoffrey Smith, "Valentinian Christianity" [2020]
Ismo Dunderberg, "Beyond Gnosticism" [2008]
Moon Knight is the latest Marvel character to get a live action adaptation on Disney Plus. The show tells the story of Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), who becomes the Fist of Khonshu, the Egyptian Moon God. How faithful is the MCU god to Khonsu of Egyptian mythology?
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Credits:
Executive Producers: Francesco Barravecchia, Robert Porchia
Producer: Audra Owens, Dhruv Singhal, Lyndsay Ballew
Writers: Chance Bonar, Andrew Henry
Editor: Mark Henry
00:00 Introduction
2:19 Antichrist in the NT
7:19 Irenaeus' Expansion of Antichrist
11:52 Tertullian and Hippolytus
14:00 Medieval Developments of Antichrist
16:11 Conclusion
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This video is a broad overview of Buddhist meditation techniques aimed at non-specialists. For those looking to explore more deeply, we recommend the following video: youtube.com/watch?v=zyNrtFIk6Ko , as well as other more in-depth videos from from Doug's Dharma. For those looking for examples of guided meditations from Buddhist teachers, youtube.com/watch?v=w6Wc8TXeDcU and youtube.com/watch?v=6wu9YzVrz3o are good places to start.
For a short and accessible introduction to the Satipatthana Sutta, see Don Lopez, ed, "The Establishment of Mindfulness," Norton Anthology of World Religions, pages 193-201.
For a translation of the Satipatthana Sutta, see: accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.than.html
For more about samatha and vipassana, see Rupert Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism, pages 174-197. For a publicly available resource, see the writings of Alexander Berzin, including studybuddhism.com/en/essentials/what-is/what-is-meditation
For more about mindfulness, sati, and samprajanna, see Jay Garfield, "Mindfulness and Ethics: Attention, Virtue, and Perfection", in A Mirror Is for Reflection: Understanding Buddhist Ethics, pages 204-207.
For more selections from the Pali Buddhist Canon on meditation and mindfulness, see Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, pages 257-300. There are also ample resources on https://www.accesstoinsight.org.
For those interested in understanding the development of the term mindfulness as used in contemporary society, see Rupert Gethin, "On some definitions of mindfulness," in Contemporary Buddhism, Volume 12, 2011 - Issue 1.
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00:00 Intro
1:06 Sponsorship
2:16 Misconceptions
4:34 Why do Buddhists meditate?
6:43 Defining meditation
8:18 What does meditation seek to accomplish?
9:35 The two wings of Buddhist meditation
12:13 Mindfulness explained
14:00 Satipatthana Sutta overview
16:51 Takeaways
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00:00 Intro
1:42 Contents
6:22 Authorship and Date
7:57 Manuscript History
10:52 Christian Usage of Text
12:54 What happened to it?
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Credits:
Executive Producers: Francesco Barravecchia, Jay Gottschalk
Producers: Audra Owens, Dhruv Singhal, Lyndsay Ballew
Writers: Andrew Henry, Bailey Benson
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00:00 Introduction
01:51 Early History of Delphi
05:54 The Oracle Explained
09:03 Geochemical Gas Theory
12:03 Problems with Gas Theory
16:20 Alternative Theory: C02?
17:48 Synthesis: Trance, yes. Gas? No.
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00:00 Introduction and Summary
3:54 Iconography Overview
6:19 Basic History
15:10 Elagabalus and Aurelian
23:08 Examining the Origins of Sol Festival
31:47 The History of Religions Theory
37:30 The Calculation Theory
46:42 Summary and Takeaway
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Credits:
Executive Producer: Jay Gottschalk
Producers: Audra M Owens, Dhruv Singhal, Lyndsay Ballew
Co-writers: Dr. Joanne Baron, Catherine Wilde
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Watch Episode 1 in the RFB Buddhism series here: youtube.com/watch?v=w88sWMukcO4
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Writer: Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut
Editor: Mark Henry
Executive Producers: Daniel Cuevas, Jay Gotschalk
Producers: Lyndsay Ballew
Further Reading:
R. Andrew Chesnut, "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint," 2011.
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~Andrew
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Watch the full Confucianism series here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHsXddZFR9AOQEB_3PSezCxTa-ribe5VY
Special thanks to these amazing people:
Executive Producers: Daniel Cuevas and Maritza
Producer: Lyndsay Ballew
Writer: Dr. Ori Tavor
Editor: Mark Henry
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Special thanks to Jennifer Greenberg for co-writing this episode.
Thanks also to Gavi Lazan for providing critical feedback and images. You can follow his work @UNPACKED, a channel dedicated to Jewish life and culture.
And thanks also to Azi Schwartz for providing all of the b-roll footage from Park Avenue Synagogue. You can follow his channel @cantorazischwartz.
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Special thanks to Duke University PhD candidate Ian Mills for co-writing this episode. Find their podcast, New Testament Review, here: youtube.com/channel/UCR8SeIgZf4x0-wUMWVvWchw
00:00 Intro: What are the Synoptics?
2:55 Traditional composition of the Gospels
3:34 Evidence of Verbatim Agreement
5:45 Evidence of Markan Priority
12:34 Double Tradition Question
14:50 Conclusion
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