Travis Simpkins

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Masonic Symbolism. Master Mason Emblems. Degree Ritual. Painting Series by Travis Simpkins

Four Paintings of the

Master Mason Emblems

Masonic Symbolism

Oil on Canvas

by Travis Simpkins

added details by Janet Simpkins

Created for

Joel H. Prouty Lodge

Auburn, MA

Grand Lodge of Massachusetts

Masonic Symbolism. Master Mason Emblems. Degree Ritual. Painting Series by Travis Simpkins

Monday, June 20, 2022

Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. Elaine Pagels. Sex and Sin. The Holy Bible. Early Christianity

Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. Elaine Pagels. Sex and Sin. Bible. Early Christianity

Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. Elaine Pagels. Sex and Sin. The Holy Bible. Early Christianity

Elaine Pagels is one of my favorite religion scholars. "Adam, Eve, and the Serpent" is her examination of how the beliefs regarding sex and sin evolved during the early centuries of Christianity.

How did the early Christians come to believe that sex was inherently sinful? When did the Fall of Adam become synonymous with the fall of humanity? What turned Christianity from a dissident sect that championed the integrity of the individual and the idea of free will into the bulwark of a new imperial order—with the central belief that human beings cannot not choose to sin? In this provocative masterpiece of historical scholarship Elaine Pagels re-creates the controversies that racked the early church as it confronted the riddles of sexuality, freedom, and sin as embodied in the story of Genesis. And she shows how what was once heresy came to shape our own attitudes toward the body and the soul.