Culture

One of the most influential architects today, the Japanese autodidact Tadao Ando (1941, Osaka) is a master of paradox. His works intermingle simplicity with mystery, globalization with roots, dead matter with personality, rationality with wild nature. No wonder that many of the most recent monographs on contemporary sacred space include references to his oeuvre.[1] His… Read the full article

Upon inaugurating the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis quoted The Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare. During the dramatic court scene, the heroine, Portia, defended the merchant Antonio against Shylock’s legalistic fury, saying the “quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.” This appeal to mercy… Read the full article

The sage Qoheleth said: “There is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said ‘See; this is new?’ It has already been; in the ages before us” (Ecc1. 1:9-10). It is inevitable; however; that we all forget the events of the distant past, and then we find ourselves in… Read the full article