Milk
The Christ-babe of Maria lactans arrives amidst desire that neither reduces to the consumptive nor leaves it behind. Literal eros is not eradicated, and neither is non-literal eros sundered from the literal. The arriving Christ negates, without ever being sanitized of, literal desire. This is what makes Maria lactans a source of anxiety: it figures
... See moreNatalie Carnes • Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia (Encountering Traditions)
For us right now, in this period science has some understanding of what’s going on, but historically fermentation has been such a mystery that it’s been really seen in many contexts as something quite literally divine. And there’s a huge amount of ceremony and ritual organized around fermentation. We can even look at some of the major world religio... See more
Sandor Katz • Fermentation as Metaphor
Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.
Reza Aslan • No god but God (Updated Edition): The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
The so-called Walesby cistern, one of several late Romano-British lead ceremonial tanks found particularly across the East Midlands and East Anglia, appears to depict the induction into such a congregation of a female catechumen or baptismal candidate, flanked by two other officiating women.3 One of the striking painted figures on a frieze in a pri
... See more