Queen of Sheba

We are introduced to the most beautiful girl in all the land (Abishag the Shunammite), an influential queen mother (Bathsheba), a royal daughter who becomes a royal wife (Pharaoh’s daughter), an ambassador queen from a foreign land (Sheba), a compliant and chameleonic king’s wife, (Jeroboam’s wife), prostitutes, and two widows. Although socially outcast, vulnerable, and powerless, it is the prostitutes that initially…

People would say that Christmastime is the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the time of the year where people are generally a lot more altruistic with one another. However, a person who truly shows the spirit of Christmas is if they are truly altruistic, in which a person makes sure they improving the welfare of others without the pretense of fame or glory attach to it. In the article “The Two Moralities of Ebenezer Scrooge,” Dwight R. Lee discusses the two morality A Christmas Carol…

It’s the year of 1352 and I’m entering the Mali Kingdom south of Ghana. As I enter the city of Timbuktu, I admire the exceptional mosques and universities surrounding me. Others, Muslim judges, doctors, religious leaders, and scholars alike share this fascination. This crucial city of this Empire came to be because of Mansa Musa. First of all, Mali’s first significant leader was Sundiata, who came to be by defeating a harsh leader. He was given title mansa, which was the equivalent of an…

The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens’ Archipenko: A Modern Legacy, on view from January 28 to April 17, 2016 in Jacksonville, Fl, was organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C., in collaboration with the Archipenko Foundation. Featuring approximately 50 sculptures, mixed media reliefs and works on paper, Archipenko: A Modern Legacy offers a comprehensive assessment of Alexander Archipenko's artistic career. Organized chronologically to walk the viewer through the artistic…

Many people believe Christian education is an additional way to keep students in a comfortable environment. When really, it is so much more. In Bishop Kallistos Ware’s essay, “A Sense of Wonder,” he implies that by practicing a sense of wonder, Christian education can be taken advantage of as a way to indulge in the life of Christ. Ware celebrates the importance of the link between wonder and freedom, and truth and freedom. He observes that wonder can be brought to, but not forced upon the…

Memories have the to power to connect people to their past, which may be a distress for some. In A Long Way Gone, a recovering boy soldier named Ishmael Beah struggles to rehabilitate by overcoming his torn memories in order to remember his significant ones. Throughout this book, Ishmael has many flashbacks in the healing process that he eventually learns to cope with. One of the first flashbacks Ishmael has is when he revisits the time when he was a junior lieutenant. Weeks after being rescued…

Introduction and Background for Women in OT Times “The Bible speaks about women in many different ways, sometimes explicitly, but more usually indirectly.” Men are usually the main characters in the Bible though sometimes women are mentioned it is usually indirectly. Women were not viewed as important as a man in society during Old Testament times. This wasn’t exactly the case with Eve. “Genesis informs its readers that woman is a special creation of God (Gen. 1:16-27; 2:18-24).” Eve was also…

Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient centers around ideas of identity. Each main character has its own identity story told in the book, and they all interconnect to form the storyline of rediscovered identity. One of the main subjects of the book presents itself in the title, and Ondaatje focuses much of his attention on the theme of Almasy, or the English patient, rediscovering his past traumatic experiences and life story. Much of the book focuses on his flashbacks and injuries as he and the…

Ysabel is a fantasy fiction novel written by the popular Canadian author, Guy Gavriel Kay. This novel takes place south of France where fifteen-year-old Ned Marriner encounters influencial people and supernatural forces. Ned is in France with his father, Edward Marriner, a well known photographer who is in the midst of taking photos for a recently developing book that is to come out next Christmas called “Edward Marriner: Images of Provence, accompanying a text by Oliver Lee.” (31) His mother,…

When I read biblical texts now I read it with a more feminine lens than I ever have before. I think it is incredibly important for biblical stories to get taught accurately and that definitely includes many stories involving women that often get misinterpreted. There are many different examples of words getting inserted into stories that make the female character portrayed negatively, such as Eve. When Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, many people are taught…