culture. education. literary studies.
At the very beginning of this yearโs Lenten season, weโre going to read a short poem by Christina Rossetti (1830โ1894), the celebrated English poet and writer of devotional literature. Her two-part poem โAsh Wednesdayโ brings into focus the meaning of this important day in the church calendar. The poem is simple, but it's not exactly …
O Come, All Ye Faithful is one of those Christmas carols that everyone knows. If not the full lyrics, at least the tune will sound very familiar: itโs an almost obligatory hymn in countless churches, regardless of denomination.ย
With Christmas approaching, for this post I've selected โA Christmas Carolโ (better known as โIn the Bleak Midwinterโ), first published in 1872. Set to music by Gustav Holst in 1906, this poem / church hymn has since become part of the classic repertoire of Christmas carols.
Manโs belief in survival of life after death is one of the oldest expressions of religiosity, firmly embedded in the very foundations of organised religion. Right from the prehistoric times humans have been keenly interested in what happens to the soul after the demise of the physical body, as evidenced by the earliest funerary rites. …
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