Your Own Personal Altar: Index

This index is not actually for religious-oriented stuff, at least not specifically.  I have an ongoing series, Your Own Personal Canon, in which I look at various books, both religious and secular, that have been a big influence in my life.  In a related vein, here I want to look at individuals–men and women–who have been influential to me, or who are personal heroes, or whom I hold in great respect.  I debated what title to give this series.  I thought about something to do with saints; but there will be non-religiously oriented individuals here, and certainly many who are not “official” saints.  I thought about “Hall of Fame”, but that sounds crass.  Finally, I thought of the shrine tables of many cultures on which the images not only of saints, bodhisattvas, deities, and such are placed, but also the images of illustrious ancestors and culture heroes.  Such tables are most accurately described as “shrines”, but they’re often referred to in contemporary discourse as “altars”.  That’s not really correct, since an altar implies a sacrifice; but I decided just to go with it.  Thus, here I will give links to articles on the various worthies about whom I will write in future posts.

Omar Khayyám

Simone Weil

Joshu

Hypatia of Alexandria