The standard history was that oil paining began in fifteenth-century Europe.
So much for that theory.
Above: a newly discovered 7th-century Afghan cave mural pointed with oil by monks, depicting the "Buddha in vermillion robes sitting cross-legged amid palm leaves and mythological creatures."
Truly inspiration, though given the historic significance I would probably have been just have impressed if the painting had been a ghost sign.
Via Journalista, this meditation on meaning from graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi hits on a fundamental truth:
We meet in London. She can’t stand Britain because of the smoking ban. She suggests that we talk in her hotel room because at least she will be able to smoke there. She lives for her cigs, and is quite happy to die for them, she says. “For me smoking is like looking at your soul,” she says in a rasping hybrid accent. “There is something extraordinarily poetic about smoking — from the gesture of holding a cigarette, turning it on, smoking it, the taste of it, the smell of it, I love every-thing about smoking.” She has no truck with the kill-joys who want to stop us doing all the things that we enjoy — simply because it might prolong our life. “Anything that has a relationship with pleasure we reject it. Eating, they talk about cholesterol; making love, they talk about Aids; you talk about smoking, they talk about cancer. It’s a very sick society that rejects pleasure.” She’s working herself up into a climax of disgust. “Why should we live like sick people just to give some fresh meat to the ground? I hope my meat is so rotten no worm in the whole universe will want to come and eat it. I want to be rotten to accept the idea of dying. Every day you live you get one day closer to death. If you are never born you will never die. Giving birth is also giving death.” She smiles, having hit on the solution to combating death.
Video: Cartoon penguins and the Statue of Liberty show kids teach kids how cigarettes are synonymous with freedom in an old advertising cartoon for Kool.
When I was a tyke, I was positively addicted to How and Why Wonder Books. Today a series on evolutionary science wouldn't include a book on religious history--and, in evangelical circles, vice versa. I'm not sure that's progress.
Minidresses inspired by a nun's habit, via Mini.
Over the past year, campaigns for internet censorship and intelligent design have not exactly helped foster an image of religion--and in particular the Christian faith--as a progressive force in technological advancement.
But it was not always thus.
Case in point: the world's first telephone book. Which, truth to tell, was just a telephone page, listing everyone who had a telephone connection in New Haven, Connecticut.
Loke closely and you'll see that the first person listed is the Rev. John E. Todd, pastor of the New Haven Church of the Redeemer. This prime page space was not given to Todd out of respect for his pastoral office. It's actually a nod to one of the weird facts of telephone history: for a while the good Reverend was the only person in the city willing to get one.
Really. The company distributed 1,000 flyers and was rewarded with only one subscriber, the aforementioned Rev. Todd. Thus encouraged the entrepreneurs pressed on, adding some doctors, a few dry goods merchants, a couple of stables (the transportation industry!) and the police. Cutting-edge journalists--the Yale News and the New Haven Register--and even a lawyer also got into the act.
The world's first commercial dedicated telephone exchange would be sustainable after all.
But it might have never happened if a forward-thinking pastor hadn't had pledged his faith in the future of an untried technology. Instead of imploding as Bell's folly, by March 1st, the phone company would have enough subscribers that it could afford to have operators make connections all night.
So remember--the next time you make a 3 a.m. booty call or phone a 1-900 sex chat, you can thank the Church of the Redeemer.
There's a new silver exhibit in Phoenix. One of the featured items: the Sumatran padung earpiece, which, when adjusted up or down, indicates a woman's marital status. Why would this jewelry have such an association, and not, say, a wedding ring?. As you can see from the following replica available at murnis.com, Its double spirals symbolize . . . um . . . the rod-like extension connotes . . .
Anyway, we're dealing with a family-friendly museum here, so let's move along now, shall we? Here's museum director Katie Anderson talking about the exhibit's religious significance:
And while sorority girls everywhere clamor for the silver Return to Tiffany necklace and bracelets, other cultures create fertility symbols with the precious metal. Known as fetishes, these objects vary in symbolism and meaning from culture to culture. It's religious iconography through jewelry, Anderson says: "Each culture's silver can tell us about the people who made them and who wore them."
Cluny Grey is a jewelry designer who writes the always engaging Jewelry Blog, and today she features not own designs incorporating peridot, the August birthstone. Along with the pics: a historical overview that includes such information as . . .
Peridot has an interesting pedigree; many people believe that Aaron's breastplate (in the Bible) had peridot although it was referred to as "topaz".
The Providence, Rhode Island Old Mill is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The reason:
its contributions to the history of American industry, the commission said. Woolens and worsteds were spun and woven at the site by local textile workers for more than 60 years.
Of course, the "dark satanic mills" of the industrial age are now all but a distant memory in the Northeast U.S. Now occupying the structure: The Cathedral Art Metal Company, a manufacturer of religious jewelry.
Haven't been able to stop thinking about a series of articles I've been reading since first tipped off to the phenomenon on Jennifer Emick's site. The subject: Jesucristo Hombre, a man who claims to be the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Why is he on my mind?
Well, because I believe him, and I'm moving to Miami to live near my new Master.
Nahhhhhh, just kidding. The real Jesus wouldn't be caught dead with such a goofy photo portrait on His website. It's Wayne Newton meets the Amazing Kreskin, and that's way more Vegas than any faith can bear.
No, what makes JcH interesting is his open embrace of entrepreneurial self-enrichment--as Ms. Emick aptly puts it, "Jesus is back with bling." Flashy jewelry, expensive watches . . . what struck me upon reading the description of his ministry & a lengthy interview was how much JcH reminds me of Father Divine, an earlier professed re-incarnation of Christ who emerged out of a mainstreaming entrepreneurial minority group--for Father Divine, African Americans; for JcH, the Latino community. (I heard a lot about FD from one of my mentors, C. Eric Lincoln, and actually lived for a time near Mother Divine's place in Philadelphia.)
One could make similar connections to the emergence of messianic figures among upwardly mobile communities in the early & late nineteenth century. It's as if the emergence of an upwardly mobile personal savior is endemic to the disintegration of class and race barriers in the U.S.
Queen Victoria uses her cross pendant to ward off a werewolf in the latest UK episode of Doctor Who. For spoiler-filled reviews detailing another connection to the BofG, click these links.
As much spiritual jewelry as there is in the world, for some families it will never be enough. Last week a federal court approved the final allocation of museum funds as part of the settlement in the Gold Train case, in which U.S. soldiers took for themselves jewelry and other items that the Nazis had seized from Hungarian Jews. For more on the history behind this case, check out this government report and hungariangoldtrain.org.
Hip Hop is the postmodern spiritual, an authentically American blend of rhyme, rhythm and redemption. Thus it is only fitting that the Smithsonian is collecting turntables, boomboxes and other hip hop "artifacts" for a permanent exhibit.
While some may be wondering what this means for hip hop's future, here at the B of G we just want to make sure that that the Smithsonian does not forget its spiritual bling!
But what to include? Hip hop is full of religious riches, from its narratives of personal deliverance to its many symbols of personal faith. To help the Smithsonian in its sacred quest, here is a list of a seven things to look for when collecting hip hop's holy relics.
7. Sacred Scriptures, Living Prophets & Moral Commandments
6. A message of love for humanity
5. Relics from revered martyrs
4. How Beautiful Are the Feet . . .
3. Symbols of the Protestant Work Ethic
2. Sacred Time
1. And, of course, the diamond Jesus Head!
EXTRA: Want to see more spiritual bling from throughout hip hop history? Check out the source for several of the pictures linked above: Minya Oh's Bling Bling: Hip Hop's Crown Jewels.
A charity auction isn't the only measure the Pope could take to counter criticism that his lavish fashion sense is too materialistic. He could also replace his expensive bling with a far cheaper tattoo.
As this newspaper article observes, religious tattoos are on the rise in the U.S., from the Bible verses on Duke's J.J. Redick and to the Hindu lotus flower.
Just we have long worn clothing has as "an extension of the skin" both to warm our bodies and to define ourselves, many now freely using their skin as an extension of their soul. This should not come as no surprise. Back in 1964 Marshall McLuhan observed that
After centuries of being fully clad and of being contained in uniform visual space, the electric age ushers us into a world in which we live and breathe and listen with the entire epidermis.
The Bahai tattoo above represents the fundamental unity of all religions, but it could also symbolize what McLuhan referred to as the "all-at-onceness" created by electronic technology. People, places, objects, time--everything now flows together, smashing the divisions and taboos of the literate West. Which also brings with the supreme irony of our technological age--
by immersing us in a world in which every surface is a communications medium, computers and the Web have actually helped revive our tribal spirit.
A religion's devotion to opulent jewelry and designer fashion can raise serious questions about its spiritual commitment. When Jesus bade Christians to take up their cross and follow him, did he really mean for it to be a gold cross studded with emeralds? Would Muhammad have felt at home at the Taj Mahal? Did the Buddha call us to seek enlightenment in a temple filled with gold adornments and a statue made of jade?
Compelling arguments can be made against adornment in excess, and we can even find devotees of almost any religion who argue that all bling is an offense. One line of argument derives from the otherworldly nature of a system of belief--believers are simply not supposed to care for such materialistic indulgences. Another line of argument is ethical--a community defined by its charity betrays its sacred trust when it accumulates wealth as the less fortunate suffer. 
Nonetheless, there's a rich tradition of delirious diademic display, and the persistence of such practices reminds us of the intimate connection between religious sentiment and our fashion sense.
As the anthropologist Ellen Dissanayake has observed, human beings display a predilection for "making special." The resonance between religion and art reflects their common roots in our desire to transcend mere existence; for many people across the globe religion needs style to soar.
The problem, of course, is one of proportion. Finding what the Buddha called the "middle way" is a dynamic process, which is why within any given faith we'll find a yin and yang--or a Benedict XVI and a Benedictine monk. Still, as Almostgirl aptly reminds us, perhaps it would be in order for Pope Benedict to follow the example of his more humble counterparts.
My own pick for a model would be his most immediate namesake, Pope Benedict XV, who replaced the gems in his papal tiara with glass after selling them to benefit veterans of World War I. After all, if PBXVI wants to dispel the allure of liberation theology & charismatic evangelicalism among the world's poor, wouldn't a public charity sale be more influential than abstract theological debate?
EXTRA: You can see Benedict XV's famous faux tiara at the Milwaukee Public Museum, which is hosting the last stop of a U.S. tour of Vatican treasures. For an excellent write-up of "Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes," check out this article from the Milwaukee Sentinel Tribune, the source of tiara pic above.
The Jesus/Darwin fish wars perpetuate the image of a war between science and religion. Nonetheless, the Jesus fish did play a key role in the evolution of modern science fiction--and with it, aided in popularizing its underlying science of complex adaptive systems.*
To the left are panels from Robert Crumb's adaptation of "the religious experience of Philip K. Dick." (Hat tip: Boingboing.net) As you can see, the object that set it all off was a Jesus fish necklace, worn by a girl bringing him some pain medication. A beam shot off of it into his eyes, unveiling a hidden truth: that we are actually living in New Testament times.
When PKD had his vision in March 1974, he already had written a sizable body of work dealing with alternate realities. The experience that you see described here, however, led PKD to see the modern world itself as a fictional skein obscuring the reality beneath. For PKD, the reality hidden by dark forces was the real world of around 50 AD, plunged into a mythic struggle between Christian enlightenment and satanic deception.
For the remainder of his life PKD wrote fiction and gave talks spreading his gospel of a real world hidden by fictional forms. As he himself observed, it was a theory that would have made Plato proud. His writings also helped popularize a neo-gnostic vision of hidden reality behind the deceptions of so-called modern day existence.
Sound familiar?
PKD's vision of a deeper reality behind our current fiction helped spawn a new generation of speculative fiction, Philip Dick's own Valis to William Gibson's landmark concept of cyberspace to Baudrillard's Simulacra to Grant Morrison's influential graphic fiction series, The Invisibles.
The first Matrix film arguably represents the high watermark of this movement, not only for its special effects but its imaginative integration of the science of complex adaptive systems with a host of memorable metaphors from philosophy and religion.
And it all goes back at least in part to a delivery girl's Christian fish sign pendant.
When denizens of ancient Roman catacombs sketched images of fish, little did they imagine that the role their piscine sketches would play in later culture wars.
Today, though, I want to turn swords into mindshare and without strife or judgment take a look at how the fish has become an all-purpose symbol for belief.
What is this last one, you ask? Why, it's the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which emerged as an object of worship worldwide at the height of the recent Kansas controversy over intelligent design!
Our pendant today combines both of this week's themes of love & creation. It's the Japanese symbol known as the seed of the universe, and it's available from the good folks at Gems & More in Mooloolaba, Australia, a town at which I'd never shake the dust from my feet for no other reason than I love the name..
This image conveys a sense of dynamic creation and growth. If it reminds you of something you've seen already this week, praise yourself for your heightened degree of spiritual enlightenment--this symbol is one of many that echoes a spiral, and in so doing it echoes the spiral swirls in our Valentine's Day nebulae.
Why the fascination with spirals? We'll talk about a lot more as the Blingdom grows, but if you want a little taste check out this uplifting site.
In the 1980s, a Hollywood prop-maker had an idea. Wouldn't it be funny, Chris Gilman joked, to promote evolution by putting feet on a fish? His friends thought it was hilarious, and thus a fad was born.
The inspiration for this bumper bling was, of course, the Christian fish, a symbol now ubiquitous in Christian cars & jewelry. Why a fish? Supposedly the inspiration comes from the use of the Greek word for fish--ichthus--as a acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior:
Iesous CHristos THeou Uios Soter
However, in recent years the Darwin fish has become so ubiquitous in popular culture that some people think that the fish was itself originally a symbol for Darwin's theory of evolution!
Yesterday parishioners in hundreds of churches around the world gathered together to praise . . .
Charles Darwin?!?!???
Yes, it's true. As one of the most clicked stories on the web notes, several hundred churches did indeed participate in Darwin Day, held annually to commemorate Darwin's birth on February 12, 1809. In fact, the celebration still continues in many towns, churches and universities, as Darwin Day has evolved into Darwin Week.
To mark this event, this week in our devotionals we'll take a look at a heavenly host of bling emerging from the holy war over creation, from the Fish Wars on car bumpers to Pastafarian jewelry and beyond.
Of course, if you buy all the bling pictured in the coming days you'll need somewhere to put it, so to start I suggest that you pick up a new jewelry box--but exactly which intelligent design I'll leave up to you.
Glass jewelry may not sound valuable, but if it's glass jewelry from nineteen hundred years ago it can have a value that goes way beyond what it might sell for on eBay. Jewelry, coins and vases found in a village outside Jerusalem point to the presence of a Jewish community in the area from 70 to 132 CE, when the community suddenly disappears.
Why is this significant? Because it is commonly assumed that Jews fled the area around Jerusalem after Romans sacked the city in 70 (depicted on the Arch of Titus, below).
Now most people won't be able fo find, let alone wear, authentic jewelry from this era or before, but it's not uncommon to find ancient Jewish coins converted into rings.
