Blog

Caesarea Maritima, Israel

Archaeology of the Levant
Caesarea Maritima
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Caesarea Maritima, Galilee
King Herod’s port
Canon 5D M3
I shot this at one of the most stunning archaeological-architectural sites in the world–King Herod’s port built with Roman ingenuity. Most of the site is ruins now except for the theater, but oh what ruins they are. I take all my students to see this site both for its significance but also it’s beauty.
I am shooting in the winter SW with an architectural lens. I do love this photo for many reasons but mostly, it reminds us that the Med can be a raging sea–and this is mild.

Tell Keisan, Israel-Palestine

Archaeology of the Levant
Tell Keisan, Israel-Palestine
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Tell Keisan, Israel-Palestine
Canon 5D M3

Tell Keisan is one of my favorite Tells from the ancient world, and I propose that it is one of the most important for understanding the history of the Southern Levant. “According to Pritchard (1981), this excavation is of major importance to the archaeological understanding of the Iron age in this region.” The Tell is situated on the northern coast of the Southern Levant just 8 km from the coast and north of Haifa. I see TK as being perfectly situated in the triangle of Cyprus-Phoenicia (Tyre)-Ancient Israel. We know that Samaria (Ancient Israel) had some types of ties to Phoenician culture(s)–the Ivories, the dressed stone work, etc. The site has barely been excavated beginning with Garstang on to DeVaux and then limited excursions by the IAA in the early 2000’s. Currently, David Schloen and Gunnar Lehmann, two of the finest living archaeologists, are excavating the Tell and recently uncovered a Persian military outpost. I expect, in the coming years, we will find more and more that Samaria (Ancient Israel) has much deeper ties to the north–Phoenicia and Aram–and not to the south. If we read the Hebrew Scriptures critically and carefully, we see this “undercurrent” emerging through the final Judahite gloss. Think about it–“Baal” “El” “Jezebaal” “Tyre” “Cedars of Lebanon” “Elijah and Elisha” “King Hiram”. It goes on and on. And here’s another kicker: king “Omri”? Omri is a Semitic name but not a Hebrew name. Wait, what?

I shot this photo early in the morning a few years, and I think I am shooting SW with the city and port of Haifa in the background.

Colors of Palestine Calendar 2023

Reflections
There is a community in Canada who supports Palestinians and their cause for justice. Each year, they produce a beautiful calendar utilizing and profiling Palestinian artists, poets, and supporters. Image and word profile their talents while at the same time calling for the end of occupation and oppression. This morning I ordered their 2023 calendar.
Want to do some good in a beautiful way? Order one of their calendars. But don’t delay–I don’t know why, but they run out quickly.
I have chosen what I think is quite a beautiful image accompanied by words from Darwish. You can see this page below.
And many thanks to my dear friend, Nancy Harb Almendres, for letting me know about Resistance Art.
Colors of Palestine Calendar
Resistance Art
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Jerash Cardo, Jerash, Jordan

Reflections
Jerash Cardo, Jerash, Jordan
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Jerash, Jordan (June 2022)
The Cardo (main street)
Canon R5
I tell anyone who will listen that Jerash is one of the best places to see and experience Roman art and architecture. The ancient city has most definitely been modified by subsequent cultures, but one can get quite close and observe the original city like few sites. Want to see ancient Rome? Visit Jerash.

Frida Kahlo’s Birthday

Reflections
Last week was Frida Kahlo’s birthday. She was definitely an outlier and misunderstood when she died in 1954. Now she is so popular she has collapsed into a cliche’. Last summer in Antwerp, there was an exhibition of her own photography and photos of her, her family, her life, her work. She endured a life of pain, but she painted much more than her pain. She rendered the pain graphically and honestly without effacing the beauty. I love her work for this reason, mostly. I mean–who can do that well? Painting pain and beauty in the same brush stroke?
“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo’s Birthday
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Frida Kahlo’s Birthday
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Jerash, Jordan: Canon 5D M3 (Jan 2016)://

Reflections
Jerash, Jordan
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

I took this photo shooting north from the Zeus Temple ruins. It was January and chilly but not too. As you can see in the photo, the sun is setting to the West (left), and I love this soft light edging twilight. This visit is my first to Jerash, and since then I tell anyone willing to listen, “If you want to see Rome in all its magnificent glory at one site, Jerash is the place.”

But to call this place “Roman” is not accurate. The Romans made it what is was and what it is, but as you well know, next come the Greeks, then the Byzantine Christians, then the Muslims, and they all had this terribly beautiful habit of poaching or ruining, but from this they would rebuild magnificent and monumental architectures. For instance, if one wants to understand Gothic churches in Europe, their “design” began in antiquity with Rome; and yet, each city transformed with the arrival of subsequent civilizations (cultures). The architecture of the “church” is grounded in Roman, Jewish, Persian, Greek, Byzantine, and yes, Muslim, ways of thinking and designing.

On this particular trip to Jerash, I was taking suitcases of warm clothing for Palestinians (mostly from Gaza decades ago) living in the refugee camp nearby. Something as simple as gifting suitcases of clothing is not as simple as it may seem. Many Americans, including good people from my home church, Tazewell Presbyterian Church (Virginia), spread the word, gathered the clothing, packed them in suitcases scavenged from donation stores, and then they sent me on my way. I am what I do best and have done for years: I am a mule, and that is the best news of all because the mule visions much of the journey.

Don Michael Hudson Religion & Literature University of Notre Dame://

Reflections, Research and Publications

I don’t often do book reviews, but when I do…

The ‘Geometrics’ of the Rahab Story: A Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Joshua 2 by Andrezej Toczyski SDB (review)

Don Michael Hudson
Religion & Literature
University of Notre Dame
Volume 53, Number 2, Summer 2021
pp. 137-139.

 

Sunset in Anchorage

Photos
Sunset in Anchorage
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Plucking a blazing ember from the hearth of history,
I toss it into the darkness of my days
And walk the street alone
To reach myself.

From "Fadhil's Descent," al-Azzawi
Translated by William Hutchins

Cook Inlet, Alaska

Photos

I took this photo in the early morning from our deck in Anchorage. This is my first time in Alaska during the summer months. The mornings are cool and tranquil reminding me of my Montana summer days. Too bad there is no good fishing here in Alaska 🙂

Sunrise on Cook Inlet
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Umm Qais: Gateway to Jordan, Syria, and Palestine-Israel

Photos

 

Umm Qais-Gedara
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

This shot is a thirty-year dream. We are standing in Jordan shooting west toward the Sea of Galilee in Palestine-Israel. You can see the West Bank and the Mt. Transfiguration (not in this shot, but they are just to the left). You can also see beautiful Syria to the right. This is the place where 4 nation-states’ borders join. The air quality has been poor this trip–I think–because of all the sandstorms north and east of Jordan along with the usual smog. This is near the spot–Gedara–where the gospels tell us that Jesus cast the demons into swine, and they ran headlong over the cliff(s).

San Marco Venice 2021

Photos
Venice: 2021
San Marco Venice 2021
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
“It is very important to a lot of people to make unmistakably clear to themselves and to the universe that they love the universe but are not intimidated by it and will not be shaken by it, no matter what it has in store. Moreover, they demand something from themselves early in life that can be taken ever after as a demonstration of this abiding feeling.”
– Norman Maclean.

Great Reservoir, Masada (2015)

Reflections
Great Reservoir, Masada (2015)
“It is the errant brother who sees what is not seen, sees what cannot be seen but feels the contours of the shadows.”
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
“It is the errant brother who sees what is not seen, sees what cannot be seen but feels the contours of the shadows.”
Link to essay here:

Compassion, Phyllis Trible, and the Madonna

Reflections
The Madonna of Zbraslava
Prague 1310-1320
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

In a post earlier this week, I referred to Phyllis Trible and her book, “God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality.” I forget how insightful she is with the biblical text, and I had forgotten what a beautiful writer she is in this work. In my opinion, anyone interested in the Jewish-Christian Scriptures must read her writings. If we listen to Trible execute new readings of old texts, she will alter our worldviews–radically.

 
Here is a passage I read last night on her interpretation of the Hebrew word for compassion. She is speaking of the two-fold function of metaphor and uses this Hebrew word rehem–“womb” and then its plural rahamim which means “compassion.” Simply put, in the singular rehem means womb; in the plural rahamim, we translate as compassion. Stay with me now:
 
“Accordingly, our metaphor lies in the semantic movement from a physical organ of the female body to a psychic mode of being. It journeys from the concrete to the abstract. “Womb” is the vehicle; “compassion” is the tenor. To the responsive imagination, this metaphor suggests the meaning of love as selfless participation in life. The womb protects and nourishes but does not possess and control. It yields its treasure in order that wellness and whole-being my happen. Truly, it is the way of compassion.” (33)
 
“to the responsive imagination”
 
The Madonna of Zbraslav (Prague 1310-1320)
St. Agnes Convent Museum Bohemian and Religious Art
 
Prague (June 21)
 
5D M3

Sunset Over Cook Inlet, Anchorage, AK (Aug 21)

Reflections
Sunset Over Cook Inlet, Anchorage, AK (Aug 21)
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

I remain quite ambivalent toward sunsets. They’re too easy to photograph and get a “Wow.” Doesn’t take much work at all really. But one must be quick. The sun is the speed of light, no? I know. But in sunsets, the sun is speedy, and the dark overwhelms quickly. I also hold sunsets at a distance with great skepticism because, as a boy growing up in the South, how many “missionary” sunsets did I view on Sunday and Wednesday church services? That “sunset’ slide was always the last slide to almost every missionary slideshow. I forget the sermon-guilt point of the last slide, but it doesn’t matter now, does it? And sunsets are gorgeously sad. But morning waits ready.

Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice Fall 21 Groups

P and R Advert
Going on our 11th year now for Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice. We still have a ways to go, but we’ve come a long way too.
 
Many thanks to the incomparable Sydney Bailey and our hard-working teaching assistants:
Students teaching students.
 
Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice Fall 21 Groups
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice Fall 21 Groups
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice Fall 21 Groups
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice Fall 21 Groups
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice Fall 21 Groups
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice Fall 21 Groups
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Foundations of Christian Thought and Practice Fall 21 Groups
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Sept 20)

Essays
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Sept 20)
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Sept 20)
5D M3
Frances Jane Roberts Kramer
29 June 1937-1 September 2021
(I love you)
“You blink, and you’re blue.”
Wilco

Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium

Photos
Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp
Don Michael Hudson, PhD
Antwerp, Belgium (July 21)
1D M2
“Remove the observer, and the world becomes devoid of these sonorous, visual, olfactory, etc., qualities, just as the flame becomes devoid of pain once the finger is removed.”
Alain Badiou

“The Man Who Bears the Cross” Jan Fabre

Reflections
“The Man Who Bears the Cross” Jan Fabre
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

 

Antwerp, Belgium (July 21)
1D M2
“The Man Who Bears the Cross”
Jan Fabre
“With ‘The man who bears the cross,’ Fabre is formulating an ‘enlightening’ answer to any form of radicalism or extremism that wishes to establish solidarity by excluding the ‘other.'”

Oskar Kokoschka “Hands” Detail

Reflections
MSK Gent
Oskar Kokoschka
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

MSK Ghent, Belgium (Jun 21)

 
1D M2
 
Oskar Kokoschka
 
Your Hands
 
“Their smoothness came
winging through time,
over the sea and the smoke,
over the Spring,
and when you laid
your hands on my chest
I knew those wings
of the gold doves,
I knew that clay,
and that colour of grain.
The years of my life
have been roadways of searching,
a climbing of stairs,
a crossing of reefs.”
 
Neruda

“The Misery of Job” by Ossip Zadkine, 1914

Reflections

Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium

“The Misery of Job” by Ossip Zadkine, 1914
Don Michael Hudson, Phd
Q2 Mono
“For this work Zadkine drew inspiration from the Book of Job in the Old Testament. God and Satan put Job’s godliness to the test by subjecting him to all kinds of disasters. Zadkine chose the passage in which Eliphaz, Bildad, and Sofaz visit their friend Job to support him.”
I have never seen this piece nor read about it. The sculpture hit me hard when I walked into the room, and I spent at least 15 minutes and even then could barely pull myself away. Zadkine’s interpretation is brilliant and emotionally gripping.
We cannot see their faces. God has overwhelmed Job with disasters. Job in his grief of losing everything is completely joined to the earth, the dirt, the dust. Only the two friends touch one another. No one looks at one another–they can only look into themselves and their own unspeakable and lonely grievings. Notice Job’s wife–her hands. I think this is the most important detail of Zadkine’s interpretation. We see them clearly and prominently. Job’s wife uses her hands to shield her face from the ferocity of heaven, the calamities of God raining down upon an innocent, righteous couple. They seem to shout, “I can take no more. Go away and leave us be.”
Have you ever lost it all, lost everything? I am defining “everything” broadly here. We can still have everything and lose “everything.” There are many everythings…

The Misery of Job by Ossip Zadkine

Reflections
The Misery of Job by Ossip Zadkine
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium

“The Misery of Job” by Ossip Zadkine, 1914
Q2 Mono
“For this work Zadkine drew inspiration from the Book of Job in the Old Testament. God and Satan put Job’s godliness to the test by subjecting him to all kinds of disasters. Zadkine chose the passage in which Eliphaz, Bildad, and Sofaz visit their friend Job to support him.”
I have never seen this piece nor read about it. The sculpture hit me hard when I walked into the room, and I spent at least 15 minutes and even then could barely pull myself away. Zadkine’s interpretation is brilliant and emotionally gripping.
We cannot see their faces. God has overwhelmed Job with disasters. Job in his grief of losing everything is completely joined to the earth, the dirt, the dust. Only the two friends touch one another. No one looks at one another–they can only look into themselves and their own unspeakable and lonely grievings. Notice Job’s wife–her hands. I think this is the most important detail of Zadkine’s interpretation. We see them clearly and prominently. Job’s wife uses her hands to shield her face from the ferocity of heaven, the calamities of God raining down upon an innocent, righteous couple. They seem to shout, “I can take no more. Go away and leave us be.”
Have you ever lost it all, lost everything? I am defining “everything” broadly here. We can still have everything and lose “everything.” There are many everythings…

St. Margaret, Altarpiece from Hyrov, Southern Bohemia (1430-1440)

Reflections
St. Margaret, Altarpiece from Hyrov, Southern Bohemia (1430-1440)
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

National Gallery Prague, Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia, Medieval Art in Bohemia and Central Europe 1200-1550

 
Prague (Jun 21)
 
5D M3
 
St. Margaret, Altarpiece from Hyrov, Southern Bohemia (1430-1440)
 
Perhaps, not known, but most likely, St. Margaret of Antioch. “She is the patron saint of the falsely accused, hoboes, homeless, insane, orphaned, mentally ill, midwives, penitents, single mothers, reformed prostitutes, stepchildren, and tramps.”
 
Sorry, but I don’t buy into the magical hoodoo of saints and demons, but Margaret has great meaning for me.
 
I am homeless, mentally ill; a tramp and a constant penitent; falsely accused and rightly accused.
 
This is the first painting I have seen of her, and she appears in a triptych facing John the Baptist. Magnificent.
 
And she tramples the dragon(s).

The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague. Detail: Holy Water Font designed by Jože Plečnik

Photos
The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague
Detail: Holy Water Font designed by Jože Plečnik
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Prague, (Jun 21)

 
5D M3
 
The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague
 
Detail: Holy Water Font designed by Jože Plečnik
 
“The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord is a Roman Catholic church at Jiřího z Poděbrad Square in Prague’s Vinohrady district. It was built between 1929 and 1932 and designed by the Slovene architect Jože Plečnik. Plečnik found the inspiration for this construction in old Christian and ancient patterns.”
 
“All architecture begins in stone.” Jože Plečnik

The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague

Photos
The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Prague, (Jun 21)

 
5D M3
 
The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague
 
“The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord is a Roman Catholic church at Jiřího z Poděbrad Square in Prague’s Vinohrady district. It was built between 1929 and 1932 and designed by the Slovene architect Jože Plečnik. Plečnik found the inspiration for this construction in old Christian and ancient patterns.”

The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague

Reflections
The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Prague, (Jun 21)

 
5D M3
 
The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord, Prague
 
“The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord is a Roman Catholic church at Jiřího z Poděbrad Square in Prague’s Vinohrady district. It was built between 1929 and 1932 and designed by the Slovene architect Jože Plečnik. Plečnik found the inspiration for this construction in old Christian and ancient patterns.”
 
I finally made it here after 20 years of trying and 3 trips to Prague.

“Crucifixion” from the Franciscan Monastery in Kadan ca. 1516-1520

Photos
“Crucifixion” from the Franciscan Monastery in Kadan
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

National Gallery Prague, Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia, Medieval Art in Bohemia and Central Europe 1200-1550

 
Prague (Jun 21)
 
Q2 Mono
 
“Crucifixion” from the Franciscan Monastery in Kadan. On loan from the Bohemian-Moravian Province of St. Wenceslas of the Friars Minor (Franciscan Order) OFM

“Crucifixion”: Northwestern Bohemia (Kadan?), ca. 1516-1520

Photos
“Crucifixion”: Northwestern Bohemia (Kadan?), ca. 1516-1520
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

National Gallery Prague, Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia, Medieval Art in Bohemia and Central Europe 1200-1550

 
Prague (Jun 21)
 
Q2 Mono
 
 
From the Franciscan Monastery in Kadan acquired in 1950.