u/not_a_stick

Around this time of year, Nazi Germany announced its surrender. Had it been this year, the war would've begun in 2020, and WW1 would've lasted from 1995–1999

The last major war in western Europe, the Franco-Prussian war, would've been in 1951–1952, and the Cold War would last from 2028–2072.

My parent's would've been alive and probably served in WW1, and I could've served in the later years of WW2. If I survived, I'd be around 66 by the end of the Cold War.

u/not_a_stick — 3 days ago

▲ 3 r/AskHistorians

How could an artist like Michelangelo, who made statues of Greco-Roman deities, get the approval of the church?

Now, I understand that the cultural heritage of pre-christian Greece and Rome held a unique position in Europe—influential christian theologians like Thomas Aquinas borrowed extensively from pagan authors like Plato (and even from muslims!)—but the Bible doesn't exactly mince words when it proscribes idolatry. You can reinterpret some verses, sure, but you'd almost have to be reading it upside down to miss all the idol-bashing

How then did depictions of Bacchus, Venus, Jupiter and Poseidon become so commonplace in European art? How did the church view this?

reddit.com

u/not_a_stick — 12 days ago