Religious Literature

A new report from the government of Vietnam says progress has been made over the past year in assuring religious freedom but acknowledged that problems remain. "Progress has been made in the operation of religious organizations in accordance with the law and the common interest of the nation," Le Quang Vinh, head of the government's Committee on Religion, was quoted as saying Wednesday.

The concept of history in the Middle Ages was not what it is today, as visitors to the J. Paul Getty Museum's new exhibition of manuscripts will see. In an eye-popping image from "Romance of Alexander," a book made in the 1290s, an unknown artist illustrated a yarn about Alexander the Great making an underwater expedition. Enthroned in a glass diving bell, below a whale that gobbles up much of the pictorial space, the regal explorer calmly observes a colony of nude people, earthly beasts and fruit trees living at the bottom of the sea. "The artist really had fun with this," says Getty curator Elizabeth Morrison, who organized the exhibition with Anne D. Hedeman, an art history professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana- Champaign.

Eighteen months ago, the Vatican released a 179-page letter--an encyclical--from Pope John Paul II to the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church. It was a complex, tightly reasoned condemnation of moral relativism and situational ethics--a call for strict adherence to the principle that some acts are just plain wrong ("intrinsically evil") and cannot be justified by extenuating circumstances, no matter how compelling.

The story of David, the shepherd boy who slew the Philistine Goliath, became the divinely chosen king of the Israelites and seduced Bathsheba, would be compelling in any era. But for medieval Christians, the poet, harpist and warrior assumed immense importance as an exemplar of piety and penitence, an Everyman on whom they could model their own commitment to God.

For more than half a century, the Bible League has been quietly distributing millions of Bibles and other religious literature to churches, prisons and hospitals throughout the world. When William Chapman, a Chicago-area businessman, founded the nonprofit organization in Walkerton, Ind., in 1938, he had just 1,000 Bibles bought with his savings. He and his wife, Betty, began canvassing their neighborhood and distributing the Bibles to anyone promising to read them.

The biblical account of Israelites held in bondage by ancient Egypt--a vital element of the Exodus story that has given hope of liberation to centuries of Jews and African-Americans--was challenged as unhistorical by a black scholar at a recent public symposium at Cal State Northridge. "There is no historical evidence of Egyptians holding the nation of the Hebrews captive," said Maulana Karenga, chairman of Cal State Long Beach's department of black studies.

In the 18th century world of religious literature, there was a special place reserved for a collection of engravings and treatises called "Ceremonies and Religious Customs of All the Peoples of the World": It was on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum"-- the Vatican's list of prohibited books.

The 1970s and '80s saw Buddhism carve itself a slender slice of the American pie of religious diversity. To a small extent, U.S. Buddhist ranks grew with American-born converts captivated by meditation, Eastern philosophy and the tranquil way of the Buddha. Many more adherents were young immigrants from Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and other Asian countries where Buddhism was simply part of the culture.

Acting in a case that could shape the future health of the military reserves, the Supreme Court said Tuesday that it would decide whether workers have an absolute right to leave their jobs for lengthy training as reservists. The decision, due next year, will not affect the nearly 200,000 reservists called up to active duty because of the Persian Gulf War. Federal law guarantees reservists ordered to active duty the right to return to jobs without penalty.

A professional storyteller is playing all the parts in a tale as old as the hills. She slumps into the character of craggy Naomi, then straightens into dewy- voiced Ruth. Her audience of 25 or so adults is dressed for work. They read along, silently, from the hefty books on their knees, looking as intent as hard-pressed students. Yet this is not a conventional classroom. It's a Monday morning, 7 o'clock, Bible study group.

A Vatican bioethics document Friday condemned artificial fertilization and other techniques used by many couples and also said human cloning, embryonic stem-cell research and "morning after" drugs were immoral. The long awaited document from the Vatican's doctrinal body marks a major step by the Vatican into biotechnology, an area in which many governments are struggling to formulate legislation.

The Psalms, says theologian Eugene H. Peterson, are God's gift to those who want to learn how to pray. "If we wish to develop our entire heart, mind, soul and strength, the Psalms are necessary," the author of the bestselling "Message Bible" writes in "Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer." "We cannot bypass the Psalms."

In the 18th century world of religious literature, there was a special place reserved for a collection of engravings and treatises called "Ceremonies and Religious Customs of All the Peoples of the World": It was on the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum"-- the Vatican's list of prohibited books.

U.S. Catholic bishops this week released a statement on faith and politics, as they have for more than 30 years, that urged Roman Catholics to follow church teachings as they participate in the political process. The statement, titled "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility," was posted online Wednesday at usccb.org and prompted swift reactions, both positive and negative, from a variety of Catholic groups.

A Koran written in 1203, believed to be the oldest known complete copy, has sold for more than $2.3 million at an auction. The holy book, which had been estimated to sell for up to $715,000, fetched $2,327,300 at Tuesday's auction in London, Christie's said, calling it a record auction price for a Koran or any type of Islamic manuscript. A nearly complete, 10th century Kufic Koran, thought to be from North Africa or the near East, sold for $1,870,000.

Speaking with mutual respect and sensitivity, prominent Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars and clergy from around the country met in Los Angeles this week to "wrestle" with what one rabbi described as the "dark side" of the three faith traditions. Experts cited "problematic" passages from the Hebrew Scripture, the New Testament and the Koran that assert the superiority of one belief system over others. As an example, the Rt. Rev.

Robert Eisenman's five-bedroom home is at the vortex of an intellectual whirlwind of biblical proportions. Its floors are piled high with boxes of yellowed documents. Its tables are covered with pages containing obscure passages. And everywhere an atmosphere of creative disorder prevails, a sort of rumbling of the mind and spirit borne of a feverish true belief.

As mainline churches try to reconcile notions of modern sexuality with Bible-based traditions, controversies are brewing over whether sexual "thou shalt nots" should be changed to "maybe thou can." "Sexuality is as powerful an issue now as slavery was in the 19th Century," says the Rev. Marvin Ellison Jr., an ethics professor who helped draft a tradition-flouting report that urges greater sexual freedom for Presbyterians. "There's no question about it," agrees pollster George Gallup Jr.

School officials in Yorktown did not violate a teacher's 1st Amendment rights when they removed Christian-themed postings from his classroom after parents complained, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. The postings included a flier publicizing the National Day of Prayer, a depiction of George Washington praying at Valley Forge, and articles about President Bush's religious faith and former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's prayer meetings with his employees.

Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday issued his first encyclical, using the most important form of papal writing to expound upon the meaning of God's love, erotic love between humans, and the relationship between the two. Physical love, reduced to pure sex, becomes a debased commodity, "a mere 'thing' to be bought and sold," the pope wrote; it must be enhanced by spiritual, selfless love for God and for one's neighbor to achieve a higher and full meaning.