Francis Young

Whether Charles III’s coronation will acquire the same iconic cultural status as past coronations remains to be seen, but this ancient ceremony continues to be an enduring source of fascination. Continue Reading »

Yet in a modern world when all certainties were overturned—doubt and fear chipped away at people’s better instincts. As Malcolm Gaskill puts it, “As life grew stranger, people became more open to strange ideas.” Continue Reading »

It is intriguing to ask exactly how and why a particular positive idea of paganism became embedded in skeptical and secular discourse—and embedded so deeply, in many cases, that there seems little chance of public education dispelling it. Continue Reading »

To tell dark stories at Christmas is to acknowledge the reality of the encompassing darkness into which the light of Christ is born. Continue Reading »

The leaders of Anglo-Saxon England perished on the field of Hastings, but their legacy is everywhere. Continue Reading »

Margaret Murray’s legacy persists in the strange idea that witchcraft was a religion, an idea long since debunked.  Continue Reading »

They don’t look very Christian—those strange faces made of leaves, and those women displaying cartoonishly enlarged genitals on the walls of medieval churches. Most people who have explored the medieval architecture of Western Europe have heard a tour guide explain that a particular carving . . . . Continue Reading »