Book Review: Rivers of Power
Throughout history rivers have been the lifeline of civilization. In "Rivers of Power" author and geophysicist Laurence Smith shows how...
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Jul 279 min
John, Paul, James & Peter
While their names may not roll off the tongue with the familiarity of John, Paul, George and Ringo--the Fab Four Beatles--in their day...
Jul 135 min
Three Wise Men
The Three Wise Men of yore were, of course, the Three Wise Men from the east who came to Bethlehem bearing gifts for the new-born Jesus. ...
May 86 min
Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe
Who knew? Who knew that the Gothic Cathedrals of Europe, so deeply associated with christianity, were in fact inspired by Islamic...
Mar 2319 min
The Four Gospels
The four Gospels are the most important books in the Bible, the culmination of biblical prophecy dating from the days of Moses. All the...
Dec 5, 202319 min
Paul's Church Without Wrinkle
All Bible scholars agree: without the missionary work of the Apostle Paul, Christianity would not have survived the First Century AD, as...
Nov 29, 20235 min
Forging a New Nation
It was the beginning of new era in the history of mankind. An otherwise ordinary man in ancient Egypt named Moses, had a meeting with...
Nov 12, 20231 min
Book Review—The Anatomy of Peace—An Antidote to War
While this book is relatively short (224 pages) and easy to read, the ideas are not simple and require thought and ongoing...
Nov 11, 20234 min
Men's & Women's Inequality
Can the world know lasting peace without equality between men and women? “Sex and World Peace,” by four acclaimed scholars (Valerie M....
Nov 4, 20233 min
The Greatest Thing in the World
"I was staying with a party of friends in a country house during my visit to England in 1884. On Sunday evening as we sat around the...
Oct 17, 20231 min
A kingdom not of this world
It seems ironic, but most of all very cruel, that there should be war once again in the Holy Land; that in these villages, towns and...
May 1, 20233 min
Book Review—The Making of a Quagmire
When I was in college as in the early-1970s, the the heroes of the Journalism Department were Vietnam reporters Neil Sheehan, Malcolm...
Apr 14, 20237 min
Domes: Easy When You Know How
In the second century A.D., Roman emperor Hadrian commissioned the building of a temple to commemorate the gods of all the planets. Mind...
Apr 14, 20232 min
Amazon Review—The Pantheon—Father of Domes
The Pantheon is brilliant in its simplicity, a combining of the circle and square, with man as part of the equation. “The Pantheon:...
Apr 13, 20235 min
Brunelleschi's Dome -- a Monument to Optimism
It was some contest, and it was some prize. The contest was finding a way to stand an egg on its end. The prize was designing what...
Mar 24, 20233 min
Book Review—The Hundred-Year Marathon—"China’s Dream is America’s Nightmare"
In some ways this book is as fantastical as “The Travels of Marco Polo.” It’s a disturbing account of the Chinese Communist Party’s...
Feb 2, 20232 min
Salt--the rock we eat
Too much salt can kill you. Not enough can kill you, too. Until recent times, when modern geology literally unearthed the earth’s...
Jan 1, 20233 min
Leipzig’s Monday-Evening “Prayer-for-Peace” Meetings – and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Perhaps the most iconic photos marking the end of the Soviet empire feature the dramatic images of protestors breaking down the Berlin...
Sep 27, 20229 min
Through the looking glass with Marco Polo
It’s the stuff of fantasy, not unlike the world of Alice in Wonderland, or of Dorothy in the Land of Oz, or of the time traveler in The...
Sep 26, 20225 min
Book Review—"Inside the Third Reich"—A Cautionary Tale
When “Inside the Third Reich” by Albert Speer, arrived in bookstores in 1970, the Vietnam war was raging unabated. In an interview with...
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