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Nov 12

New analysis recently revealed the Shroud of Turin (Christ's alleged burial cloth) to be 2,000 years old.

But that's just one of the relics of Jesus — the Vatican claims to have far more.

Here are the most interesting, and why they could be real... (thread) 🧵

Relics associated with Jesus are some of the most sought after objects in existence.

Countries have paid their entire annual budgets to get hold of them, or traded them off for armies...

Turin's Shroud is perhaps the best known: a linen cloth said to be the real burial shroud, imprinted with a miraculous image.

New X-ray analysis of the linen's flax cellulose has dated it to the time of Christ.

Read 21 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 11

Why is university education today so broken?

In the Middle Ages, it was profoundly different — it wasn't about acquiring skills, but about thinking.

By teaching you the 7 liberal arts... (thread) 🧵

Ancient and medieval societies had a vastly different idea of what higher education should be.

It wasn't about readiness for work, but cultivation of the moral and intellectual virtues that free the mind...

From the 12th century, a standard university course consisted of 7 liberal arts: 3 humanities (the trivium) and 4 sciences (the quadrivium).

These weren't exactly subjects in and of themselves, but modes of learning.

Read 19 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 7

The Lord of the Rings is a deeply Christian story — once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Tolkien's elves aren't just mythical beings; they're Mankind before the Fall.

And Middle-earth is no imaginary world — it's our Earth, a long time ago... (thread) 🧵

Middle-earth is meant to be our world thousands of years ago. With LOTR and his legendarium, Tolkien was trying to create a mythology for England.

He said himself: "Middle-earth is our world..."

"I have (of course) placed the action in a purely imaginary (though not wholly impossible) period of antiquity, in which the shape of the continental masses was different."

Read 18 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 6

Reminder: this is how American cities looked 100 years ago.

Everything in this image was demolished.

Here's why — and how we can bring it back... (thread) 🧵

At the turn of the 20th century, exhibitions known as World's Fairs transformed American cities into vast architectural displays.

They were moments of immense civic pride and confidence for the future...

For example, St. Louis turned its parks into lagoons and waterways, navigated by visitors on Venetian gondolas and electric boats.

1,500 neoclassical buildings built in a few years.

Read 17 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Nov 1

Ancient Greek thinkers like Socrates and Plato hated democratic elections.

They saw democracy as part of an endless cycle of regimes — destined to slip into mob rule.

But Polybius knew how to break the cycle... (thread) 🧵

Socrates likened the state to a ship. The uneducated voting in elections is like a ship taken over by a crew with no knowledge of sailing.

When selecting a captain, the crew is easily swayed by whoever is best at persuasion — not navigation.

Voting, thought Socrates, is a skill to be learned.

In Plato's 5 forms of government, democracy ranks only above tyranny, which it will inevitably become.

Why?

Read 14 tweets

Culture Critic

@Culture_Crit

Oct 31

The most disturbing art ever made is 500 years old, by a mysterious Dutch painter.

But these aren't just imaginative nightmares. They're warnings about human nature — and what a world without religion is like.

Click this thread if you dare... 🧵

Very little is known about Hieronymus Bosch, but his art is world-famous.

His paintings take us to Hell and back, revealing what sort of actions land us there, and the consequences...

Bosch is known best for his surreal visions of Hell as a chaotic parade of punishments.

In Bosch's Hell, you won't burn in flames — you'll be crucified in a giant harp and prodded at, or devoured by a half-man, half-fish.

Read 19 tweets

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