Languages of God: The Word as Decoration
Jews and Muslims have a particular attachment to languages as expressions of the Word of God. Hebrew and Arabic are both sacred languages since both are in a sense the language of God Himself.But there...
View ArticleHistorical Perspectives on the Three Faiths
If the Three Faiths exhibit has piqued your curiosity, here are five books that offer some historical background to the origin and development of the three religious traditions.Abraham: A Journey to...
View ArticleStudents at Seward Park Adult Literacy Program Discuss Three Faiths Exhibit
Last week, a group of adult students and volunteer tutors at the Seward Park Library's Center for Reading and Writing, the library's free adult literacy program, gathered for an introduction to the...
View ArticleShazam! The Power of Language in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
From “Abracadabra” to “Shazam,” and from “Say the magic word” to “Open Sesame,” humans have long believed that words and languages have a power far beyond and far deeper than their simple rational...
View ArticleField Trip! Adult Literacy Students Visit Three Faiths Exhibit
Last week, students from the Seward Park Library's Center for Reading and Writing, the Library's free adult literacy program, took a field trip to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to see the exhibit,...
View ArticleNew York’s Gilded Age of Liturgical Music—and How it Ended
For millennia, worship has been coupled with music. This bond often has been an uneasy one, and nowhere has that uneasiness been so openly displayed as in the churches of New York City. Beginning in...
View ArticleThe 411 on Faith: Where Sacred Texts Meet City Life
So where is faith, exactly? What is the 411? Where can we see the role of religion in our lives and communities? The answer, of course, is pretty much everywhere. Religion, it seems, is all over the...
View ArticleSpencer Collection Book of the Month: Correspondence of St. Jerome
When I started blogging last May, I hoped to post frequently, but my "day job" of cataloging the books I'd like to write about kept getting in the way. This year, I made a New Year's resolution to blog...
View ArticleReligious Tolerance Booklist
The New York Public Library's Three Faiths exhibition explores the commonalities between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But what of the other faiths of the world? There is much to be learned from...
View ArticleTeaching Religion in the Secular Classroom: Nothing to Fear
In our work at the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, we regularly come across public school educators who believe that they are not supposed to talk about religion in the classroom....
View ArticleHarlem Library Cinema Series @ George Bruce - May 2011
Have you found your calling? The May film screening from The National Black Programming Consortium, The Calling, explores this topic as it follows seven people who feel that they have found theirs.From...
View ArticleThe Music Division's Patron Saint, Katharine Drexel
On Sunday, the first of October, 2000 in Rome, Pope John Paul II presided over the ceremony that would elevate Philadelphia born Katharine Drexel to sainthood. It’s doubtful that few, if any of the...
View ArticleNotes From a Life-Long Learner: God — To Be(lieve) or Not To Be(lieve)
I spent a recent weekend pondering the existence of God. It’s something I do from time to time because I was a religious person once, in the Judeo/Christian tradition, but am not so now. After many...
View Article"Small Town Sinners": An Interview with Melissa Walker
Melissa Walker's newest book, Small Town Sinners, is about a girl named Lacey that is torn between falling in love and keeping her faith — all while taking a lead role in her town's sin-depicting...
View ArticleGold, Freedom, Faith, and Baroque in Brazil
I had not slept for 34 hours. After a bad flight and two long bus trips, I was hiking, ecstatic, in a muddy mine. I touched the walls from top to bottom. Perhaps “he” had put his hands there too. I was...
View ArticleIslam in Europe: A Resource Guide at NYPL
According to the BBC News, "Islam is widely considered Europe's fastest growing religion, with immigration and above average birth rates leading to a rapid increase in the Muslim population." There are...
View ArticleFinding Jesus at NYPL: A Research Guide
Perhaps no person in human history is more controversial than Jesus of Nazareth. The parable above (among many other well known ones) came from Jesus in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. In...
View Article2013: The Year of the Snake
According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. In the Chinese zodiac, the snake is equivalent to the Taurus in Western tradition. February 10th, 2013 to January 30th, 2014 will...
View ArticleGod in the Stacks: The Scoop on Christian Fiction
You can say it started in 1678 with the publication of John Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress. Then along came Hall Caine's The Christian (1897) and C.S Lewis'Chronicles of Narniain the 1950s. Fast forward to...
View ArticleWhere the Hell is Hell? A Look at the Underworld
The Ancient Greeks believed it. Christians believe it. So do Muslims, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Shintos, Sikhs, Mayans, Mormons, Witches, and few other spiritual groups.Regardless of their spiritual...
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