According to chapters 11-23 in the book of Genesis, Abraham and his wife Sarah are the progenitors of the Hebrew people. Sarah, along with Rebecca, Rachel and Leah are considered the “four Matriarchs” of the Jewish people. When Abram was 75 (God later changed his name to “Abraham”), God instructed him to travel to Canaan with Sarai (who later became “Sarah”).

To the couple’s great dismay, Sarai was barren; a fact that weighed on the couple more heavily in light of God’s promise that Abram and his children would found a great nation. After ten years of unsuccessfully trying to conceive, Sarai gave Abram her maidservand Hagar to take as his concubine.

Hagar soon conceived, and bore a son named Ishmael. However, when Abram was 99 years old, God appeared before Abram and blessed the couple (and symbolically changed Abram’s name to “Abraham” and Sarai’s name to “Sarah”). God promised Abraham that Sarah would conceive a child despite her advanced age (she was 90!) and that he would maintain his covenant with their son, Isaac. True to his promise, their son Isaac was born a year later, beginning the biblical line of God’s promised “great nation” of Israel.

Isaac and Ishmael were initially raised side by side as brothers, but Sarah eventually asked Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away for reasons that are still debated by Biblical scholars today. Some claim that Sarah was horrified after discovering that Ishmael was secretly worshipping other gods, some say that it was motivated by Hagar’s uppity attitude and still others claim that Sarah was afraid that Ishmael would receive a greater inheritance as Abraham’s firstborn. In any event, Abraham ordered Hagar and Ishmael to leave his house the next morning (according to Muslim religious texts, Hagar went on to become one of the matriarchs of Islamic). It is alleged that Sarah died peacefully, at the ripe old age of 127.

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The Church of the Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia, is a former Byzantine church and former Ottoman mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. Sadly, nothing remains today of the original Hagia Sophia, which was built on this site in the 4th century by the Emperor Constantine, the first Christian emperor and the founder of Constantinople. The Hagia Sophia was the crown jewel of a number of Christian churches built in important cities by the emperor. After the destruction of Constantine’s church, his son Constantius and the emperor Theodosius the Great build a second church at the site; however, it was burned down during riots in 532 AD and only scant fragments of the remnants of this church survive today.

Hagia Sophia was rebuilt in her present form between 532 and 537 under the personal supervision of Emperor Justinian I. After the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottomans in 1453, Hagia Sophia was converted into the principal mosque of Istanbul for almost 500 years. At first, very few structural changes were made by the ruling sultanate, with only a mihrab (prayer niche), minbar (pulpit) and a wooden minaret added to the former church. However, at some point, all of the faces depicted in the church mosaics were covered with plaster due to the Islamic prohibition on figurative imagery.

In 1934, under Turkish president Kemal Atatürk, Hagia Sofia was secularized and turned into the Ayasofya Museum. The prayer rugs were removed, revealing the marble beneath, but the mosaics remained largely plastered over and the building was allowed to decay for some time. Some of the calligraphic panels were moved to other mosques, but eight roundels were left and can still be seen today.

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Mizuko kuyō, or “fetus memorial services”, is a popular ceremony is Japan for those who have had a miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion. The practice of Mizuko kuyō has existed in some form in Japan for at least two centuries, and is generally included among Shinto practices involving ancestor worship. Mizuko kuyō ceremonies traditionally make offerings to the bodhisattva Jizō, who is believed to protect children.

Historical upheavals, overpopulation and shifting values have contributed to the widespread practice of abortion in Japan. Abortion became particularly widespread after the ravages of World War II, in response to acute poverty and the need to control a growing population in a country with limited living space and no system of adoption. Moreover, while abortion is widely accepted in Japan, parents still express concern for the souls of their unborn babies. Thus, the practice of Mizuko kuyō reflects an effort to resolve parental grief, comfort the soul of the fetus and/or prevent retribution from the vengeful spirit.

Men and women of all ages and socio-economic classes practice Mizuko kuyō. At each temple, a notebook is provided in which parents can write messages to their babies. It is common for these temples to offer Jizo statues for a fee, which worshippers dress in red bibs and caps and display in the temple yard as a representation of their lost child. Some prominent Japanese figures have spoken out against Mizuko kuyō, claiming that the practice has become too commercial and that these temples advertise in a manner that exploits people’s fears of retaliation by the dead. However, many defend the practice on the grounds that it addresses important emotional needs of the people.

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On September 30, 2009, the Kerala High court in India ordered local police and the Union Home Ministry to conduct a probe of the “forced conversion” campaign known as ‘Love Jihad’ or ‘Romeo Jihad.’ It is alleged that young men have been recruited by radical Islamic organizations to attract college girls with declarations of love and promises of marriage in an effort to coerce them into converting to Islam.

The ruling came on the heels of a Kerala court rejection of the bail applications of two Muslim men accused of ‘luring’ two MBA students into marriage for the sole purpose of converting them Islam. The young women testified that they had been ‘tricked’ into converting to Islam by their suitors, who had first endeared themselves with promises of marriage. The young women subsequently accompanied their suitors on a ‘romantic date,’ only to be held hostage by the young men and forced to watch extremist Islamic propaganda videos. The suspects were members of Campus Front, the student chapter of the powerful confederation of Muslim organizations known as Popular Front of India (PFI).

Investigators are now trying to determine how many girls have been “trapped in the racket” and where the funding for the movement is coming from. Investigators began to suspect that something was afoot over the summer, when the police reported that they had registered almost four thousand young women, over the course of six months, who had been exposed to the ‘Romeo Jihad’ network and subsequently converted to Islam.

However, the investigation into the alleged ‘Love Jihad’ movement is not entirely one-sided; Kerala Police are also attempting to trace the origins of mysterious posters that have sprouted up at women’s college campuses that warn students to be wary of becoming victims of ‘Love Jihad.’ These posters bear the name Rama Sene, a right-wing Hindu nationalist group that gained international attention earlier this year after members of their organization attacked a group of young women in a pub as part of their “moral policing” act.

In sum, investigators are now faced with the unenviable task of separating fact from fiction in a region long polarized by religious strife.

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In Christianity, The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament, which describe the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. They include the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and it is estimated that they were written between the years 65 and 100 AD. These four books are generally considered the “canonical gospels” and are the only books to be included in the New Testament, despite the existence of numerous other “apocryphal” gospel writings. One of the most influential apocryphal gospels is the Gospel of James, also sometimes referred to as the Infancy Gospel of James or The Protoevangenlium of James, probably written about AD 150. The Gospel of James introduces the concept of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, a central belief included in the dogma of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches. These churches believe that Mary was a virgin before she gave birth to Jesus, and remained chaste for the rest of her life, despite her marriage to Joseph.

The Gospel of James contains several stories “proving” Mary’s chastity, including a test performed by a midwife before Jesus’ birth confirming that she was still “intact.” Moreover, the passages concerning the Nativity (Jesus’ birth) state that Mary did not experience any pains from childbirth, because she was not stained with original sin (thanks to her Immaculate Conception). As an explanation for references made to Jesus’ siblings in the canonical gospels, Joseph is described as an older widower, who had sired children with his first wife prior to his accepting “guardianship” over Mary. Therefore, the “brothers” and “sister” mentioned in these texts are thought to be Jesus’ stepsiblings.

The doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary is considered de fide (essential to the faith) amongst religious denominations that adhere to this belief, with an entire branch of theological study (Mariology) exclusively devoted to studying scripture and teachings concerning Mary. The veneration of Mary is especially prominent in the Roman Catholic Church, especially amongst Latin American worshipers, where Mary’s chastity is revered as a uniquely female expression of holiness, piety and self-sacrifice.

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The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most famous religious texts in the world. In 700 verses, it recounts a conversation between the god and charioteer Krishna and the Pandava prince and archer Arjuna. The conversation takes place on a battlefield at Kurukshetra, right before the fighting begins. Unsure that he should continue with the battle that would kill so many, Arjuna argues to Krishna that he should not fight. Krishna responds with an argument in favor of action and duty. For thousands of years, massive commentaries have been written on this short text, purporting to find a complete philosophy of life and the afterlife in it. But none of those commentaries is nearly as massive as the work in which the Bhagavad Gita is contained. That work is the great Hindu epic known as the Mahabharata. It is 74,000 verses long, ten times longer than both Homeric Epics – The Iliad and The Odyssey – combined. The Gita, tucked away in the middle of Box Six of the Mahabharata is less than one percent of the total.

The Mahabharata is the epic tale of Iron Age (or “Vedic”) India, and focuses on the Kurukshetra war—a conflict between the clans of Kauravas and the Pandavas for the throne of Hastinapura. A number of translations of this work are available or in progress. The poet P. Lai has recently completed a verse translation, and two prose translations are currently in progress. One, by the University of Chicago Press, was begun in the early 1980’s by the scholar J. A. B. van Buitenen, but was put on hold for 20 years after he died in 1983. The press has recently begun releasing new volumes again. In addition, a complete translation of the Mahabharata is going to be included in the Clay Sanskrit Library from New York University Press. The Clay Library aims to be the Sanskrit equivalent of Harvard’s Loeb Classical Library. The Loeb Library, published in small green hardcovers, provides Greek and Latin texts with facing page translations of the major works of Ancient Greece and Rome. In addition to the Mahabharata, the Clay Library is producing a complete translation of the other major Hindu epic — the Ramayana — as well as other religious, poetic and philosophical works. It promises to be a great resource for Devoted Intellectuals everywhere. Visit it here.

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Before Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan in 313, it was illegal to practice the Christian faith in the Roman Empire. In fact, many religious sects were outlawed before the Edict was issued. The Edict mentions Christians specifically, but it also makes it clear that “others” will also have the “full authority to observe that religion which they prefer.” This tolerant atmosphere was short-lived: less than a century later, the emperor Theodosius I would declare Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

The line from Constantine’s Edict to Theodosius’ momentous declaration is usually portrayed as a very direct one, but there was a significant reversal in between. In 361, Constantine’s nephew Flavius Claudius Julianus became emperor. He only reigned for a short time, dying in battle with Persia in 363. However, he made a valiant attempt during his reign to stem the tide of Christianity and restore the worship of the Hellenic gods. His contempt for Christianity was quite extreme: he referred to Christians as “Galileans” and churches as “charnel houses” in Against the Gallileans, his treatise opposing the faith. Of course, the young emperor failed and the victors gave him the name by which he is remembered today: Julian the Apostate.

Sixteen centuries later, an American admirer of Julian’s resurrected the vanquished emperor as a character in a historical novel. As a narrative description of Christianity’s triumph, and the atrocities and compromises that secured it, Gore Vidal’s Julian can’t be beat. Buy it here.

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