400 candles
As one gets older the appeal of celebrating most anniversaries seems to decline. It’s as though there were some sort of inverse relationship, the bigger the number the less desire to make a fuss about it.
Here’s an exception to that rule. The King James Bible turns 400 this year. It was published on May 2nd, 1611 by the Church of England and became known as the Authorised or King James Version of the Bible. It has done more to influence the language we speak, the most used one on the planet, than anything other than Shakespeare.
Back a couple of decades ago when I was an articling law student in Toronto, facing a 40 minute subway commute each way, each day, for a year, I decided I’d read the Bible cover to cover. The King James version was the obvious choice. And reading it from front to back opened my eyes about a number of things.
The very first thing I learned when I started to read the Bible was something I hadn’t expected. It was that sitting down on a train and pulling out…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins