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The smoke of Purgatory
Pardoners were selling something more valuable than cures, tulips or bitcoin. They were selling eternal life...
Sep 18
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Paul Ham
1
1
Kindling for the Reformation
When Gutenberg first printed the 'Word of God', Rome felt the fury of an oppressed people who knew they'd been deceived for centuries
Sep 11
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Paul Ham
2
The man who resurrected Confucius
Wang Yangming and the neo-Confucian ideal
Sep 4
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Paul Ham
2
August 2025
Aquinas 'completed' Aristotle
Then 'the last man to die a virgin' fell silent...
Aug 28
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Paul Ham
1
Meanwhile, in the monasteries...
The monks had not been idle, until many went mad
Aug 21
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Paul Ham
1
2
Maimonides and the god of the perplexed
The great Jewish thinker laid the moral foundations of Judaism. Israel's regime and their enemies ought to read him...
Aug 14
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Paul Ham
3
Light in the 'Dark Ages': the flowers of Islam
Early Islamic philosophers prefigured Descartes and anticipated Western ideas of psychology, 'bonding' and the separation of God and State by 1,000…
Aug 7
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Paul Ham
2
2
July 2025
God's wars
Breathe out: this is the last of my essays on medieval horror inflicted in the name of God or Allah. Next week we return to the marvels of the mind!
Jul 31
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Paul Ham
2
3
Poor Jerusalem, 1099
The first crusaders showed no mercy
Jul 24
•
Paul Ham
3
The First Crusade
Cutthroats and bandits joined princes and pilgrims on the great march to the Holy Land. They thought they were going to be saved...
Jul 17
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Paul Ham
1
3
Killer popes
By promising salvation to the first crusaders, they ignited a Christian 'holy war' against Islam
Jul 10
•
Paul Ham
The shock of the Norsemen
Why the Vikings plundered Europe then converted to Christ
Jul 3
•
Paul Ham
1
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