{"id":3597,"date":"2011-12-19T12:05:42","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T19:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3597"},"modified":"2011-12-19T13:50:45","modified_gmt":"2011-12-19T20:50:45","slug":"ground-broken-for-pagan-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3597","title":{"rendered":"Ground Broken for Pagan Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ground was broken on the 17th for construction of the New Alexandrian Library in Georgetown, Delaware.<\/a><\/p>\n

Its name references an ancient library in Alexandria, Egypt.<\/a> It\u2014or they, as there were several collections\u2014was damaged in Roman wars, destroyed as part of a campaign against Pagan temples by a Christian bishop\u2014and according to some accounts, also by Muslim conquerors of Egypt.<\/p>\n

The history is hard to sort out, but there is a constant theme of repository of knowledge threatened or destroyed by war and religious bigotry, which is easy enough to understand.<\/p>\n

To further complicate things, there is also a modern Bibliotheca Alexandria<\/a> in Egypt, which claims to carry on the spirit of the original(s). One wonders what will happen to it if Egypt enters another period of bigotry and chaos. You might say that the book-burning has already begun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back in Delaware, if I understand correctly, Cherry Hill Seminary<\/a> will treat the New Alexandrian Library as its physical library for further accreditation purposes.<\/p>\n

Ivo Dominguez, one of the people involved in the project, noted<\/p>\n

As much as I and many of you like the internet, or their Kindle or their iPad, there is no substitute for having rooted in the physical plane storage, special materials and more importantly, a catalyst for interaction. Where there have been great libraries, and libraries are as much the center for creation and presentation of culture, you have a crossroads where you have interaction between different people doing scholarly work. There is a place to point at and say, in this place we actually have the maturity and perseverance as a community to make something happen that stays.”<\/p>\n

There is no Kindle, no electronic version that will ever be the same as actually being in the presence of a book that was owned by a particular author. Each of these books is like a Book of Shadows. Each is filled with the essence and the energy of the people who have worked with it. So there is something that can only be held in the physical realm.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They want to raise money to build a series of sturdy concrete-covered domes<\/a>. It’s a noble project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ground was broken on the 17th for construction of the New Alexandrian Library in Georgetown, Delaware. Its name references an ancient library in Alexandria, Egypt. It\u2014or they, as there were several collections\u2014was damaged in Roman wars, destroyed as part of a campaign against Pagan temples by a Christian bishop\u2014and according to some accounts, also by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-3597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-W1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1432,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1432","url_meta":{"origin":3597,"position":0},"title":"Who Was Hypatia?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"With the build-up among Pagan moviegoers for a North American release of Alelejandro Amenabar's Agora, here is a quick biography of the philosopher Hypatia herself and the religious conflicts that led to her murder by a Christian mob. (She was a bit older at her death than is Rachel Weisz.)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"On the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, a mob led by Peter the Lector brutally murdered Hypatia, one of the last great thinkers of ancient Alexandria. Mary Evans Picture Library \/ Alamy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.smithsonianmag.com\/images\/Hypatia-murdered-388.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2356,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2356","url_meta":{"origin":3597,"position":1},"title":"Bibliotheca Alexandrina Seeks Pagan Writers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Bibliotheca Alexandrina publishers seek writers for a new series of anthologies dedicated to various gods. You may also read\u00a0 longer versions of the calls for submission at Amanda Blake's blog, Temple of Athena the Savior. There is, of course, no connection other than name and some history between this publishing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1968,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1968","url_meta":{"origin":3597,"position":2},"title":"Agora: It’s a Riot","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally watched Agora on DVD last night. It's one rioting mob after another interspersed with astronomy lessons. You have your Pagan mob, your Jewish mob, your Christian mob(s). A Muslim mob would have fit right in, but had not yet been invented. And did Hypatia really discover that planetary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Egypt\"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=egypt"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1281,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1281","url_meta":{"origin":3597,"position":3},"title":"Some Newish Online Pagan-Related Magazines","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 The new Pagan Edge offers \"lifestyles and passions of the modern Pagan.\" The special subscription price is good until January 10th.\u2022 Penton has been published in South Africa for a while. They are up to issue 45 and have a nice, straightforward navigation system.\u2022 Sannion links to a possibly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5108,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5108","url_meta":{"origin":3597,"position":4},"title":"“Yana Dropped Off First”: Vanishing Pagans of Egypt and Syria","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"To begin with, there were just a handful of them. And some are going silent, as Cara Schulz writes for the Pagan Newswire Collective: The situation in Syria appears to be more grave, according to the last messages I received from the five Pagans I chat with regularly. \u00a0They spoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3225,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3225","url_meta":{"origin":3597,"position":5},"title":"Declaring War on Bikinis and Pyramids","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is this not surprising news? With the \"Arab Spring\" fading into the long hot summer, the Islamic militants in Egypt are focusing on their favorite targets (besides Coptic Christians): women, eroticism, and Paganism. Some slight changes will be made in public beaches, to make the situation better than it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Egypt\"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=egypt"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3597"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3606,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597\/revisions\/3606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}