Predictive History

Today we are examining the Byzantine Empire, and I will be looking at three questions. 1. Why do we have the Byzantine Empire? Historically, we have seen the Byzantine Empire as a continuation of the Roman Empire. We have the Byzantine Empire because Constantine the Great, in 330 CE, transferred

There is a country in the world today that purposefully modeled itself after Rome: the United States of America. The similarities between Rome and the United States are very striking. Both of these societies were, in their time, the most powerful nations. Rome dominated the Western world for centuries, and

To better understand human history, what's happening in the world today, and to be able to predict the future, we must build on what we've learned. If you have been following current events, there are now three major conflicts in the world. The Three Major Conflicts

There are secrets, mysteries, and paradoxes embedded in Dante's Divine Comedy. The ultimate secret of the universe is that we are in God and God is in us. This breaks apart the idea of the Holy Trinity. The idea of the Holy Trinity is an equation that makes

Dante really is the height of civilization; it does not get better than Dante. What's amazing about the Divine Comedy is that all students love it, but also each time I teach it, I'm able to discover new insights that I didn't realize before.

Muhammad is one of the most important and influential figures in human history, as important as Jesus. Ironically, we don't know that much about him. We probably know more about Jesus than we know about Muhammad. With Jesus, at least we have a lot of his quotations and

Augustine, though not as famous as some other thinkers, is actually very important because he is the intellectual architect of the Catholic Church. In this world, the Catholic Church is the largest organization; it has 1.5 billion members and has been around for almost 2,000 years. Augustine is

Monotheism marks an intellectual revolution in human history, and it created the conditions for modernity—the lives we're living today. The first monotheistic religion is Christianity. The Christian Tradition vs. The Historical Record If you talk to Christians, they have a very easy and coherent explanation for why

We've previously talked about the central paradox in Christianity: what Jesus believes is different from what Christianity teaches us about Jesus. Let's review what Jesus believes and teaches versus what Christianity teaches us about him. Jesus is one of our great spiritual leaders and geniuses, like

Jesus is the most famous man who has ever lived. There are about two billion people on this planet—about a quarter of the human race—who worship him. So who is he? What does he believe? And why is he so important? Let's first look at what