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

Let us do an overview of the history of the ancient Israelites from about 1010 BC until 586 BC. This is what is referred to as the First Temple Period. The nation of Israel was created by King David as a coalition of different tribes, cultures, and religions. What made

We've previously discussed King David of Israel and how he initiated the project of the Bible to create legitimacy and authority. We will continue along this theme today. The Traditional Chronology of the Bible In the beginning, there was God. In the Bible, his name is Yahweh. He

The Bible is the most important book ever written. It has driven a lot of history, and it's driving a lot of history today. If you want to fully understand the conflict in the Middle East—what's happening between Israel and Iran, what's happening

We are concluding our study of the Bronze Age with the Indus Valley Civilization. We've done Egypt and Mesopotamia, and now we turn to the Indus Valley. I'm going to look at three questions. First, what is it that makes the Indus Valley Civilization distinct or