One morning in 19th-century India, the followers of Sri Ramakrishna were gathered for breakfast. Ramakrishna, a mystic and spiritual teacher, had died the preceding year, and a monastic order had been established with his followers continuing in their devout practice. One devotee, the future Swami Vivekanada, began to “playfully imitate”
Follow @yaleRELIbooks As the Romans conquered vast territories in the first century BCE, they brought disparate parts of the world under one political rule. Their strategy for maintaining these sprawling territories left room for relative cultural, linguistic and religious diversity, so long as it did not threaten Roman authority. Ideas
Follow @yaleRELIbooks In Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry, editors Jay Hopler and Kimberly Johnson present a thoughtfully selected collection of devotional lyric poetry. From its origins in ancient hymnody to its twenty-first century incarnations, devotional poetry in the English language has undergone many changes in
Follow @yaleARTbooks In February of 2014, Yale University Press will release an exciting new book on the history of comics: Comics Art, by Paul Gravett, the man the Times of London called, “the greatest historian of the comics and graphic novel form in this country.” The book will explore the varied
By his own estimation David Bentley Hart has written “either an extremely ambitious or extremely unambitious book,” though he tends toward latter. In The Experience of God, Hart sets out to write something akin to a definition of God, so indeed the concept is vast. Still, Hart tackles it with
Follow @yaleRELIbooks Jennifer Banks— I had been acquiring religion books for Yale University Press for five years or so when my grandmother’s passing brought me back to the Catholic Church I’d attended as a child. I sat in the back row at her funeral, with my two-year-old daughter and four-month-old
Follow @yaleSCIbooks Imagine working at an excavation site on a mission to unearth pieces of our prehistoric past. And suddenly you discover a skull underneath mounds of dirt, the remains of a distant ancestor who has remained hidden for millennia. Such a discovery was celebrated in Georgia earlier this month
Bernard Berenson’s life is an inspiring story of a poor immigrant to America achieving great fame and fortune. A sensitive and articulate consumer of art, his incredible eye and his talent for engaging listeners in interpretations of artworks took him from his humble beginnings to a lavish lifestyle assisting Gilded
Today, October 29, is National Cat Day. Artists throughout history have had close relationships with felines. “The smallest feline is a masterpiece” is a quote attributed to Leonardo da Vinci; Salvador Dalí had a pet ocelot; Henri Matisse was very fond of his two cats, Minouche and Coussi; both Pablo
We all know the story of the Garden of Eden. God created Adam, then Eve, and he told the two not to eat fruit from a certain tree. But the snake tempted Eve to taste the forbidden fruit; she, in turn, seduced Adam to do the same, and this led