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New Testament

(Encyclopedia)New Testament, the distinctively Christian portion of the Bible, consisting of 27 books of varying lengths dating from the earliest Christian period. The seven epistles whose authorship by St. Paul is...

Brazilian literature

(Encyclopedia)Brazilian literature, the writings of both the European explorers of Brazil and its later inhabitants. In 1902 Euclides da Cunha wrote his masterly description of an uprising in the Brazilian northe...

biblical archaeology

(Encyclopedia)biblical archaeology, term applied to the archaeology of the biblical lands, especially those of the ancient Middle East. While the thousands of written texts found in the languages of the ancient Mid...

Beethoven, Ludwig van

(Encyclopedia)Beethoven, Ludwig van lŭdˈwĭg văn bāˈtōvən, Ger. lo͝otˈvĭkh fän bātˈhōfən [key], 1770–1827, German composer. He is universally recognized as one of the greatest composers of the West...

child welfare

(Encyclopedia)child welfare, services provided for the care of disadvantaged children. Foundling institutions for orphans and abandoned children were the earliest attempts at child care, usually under religious aus...

gospel music

(Encyclopedia)gospel music, American religious musical form that owes much of its origin to the Christian conversion of West Africans enslaved in the American South. Gospel music partly evolved from the songs slave...

Oligocene epoch

(Encyclopedia)Oligocene epoch ŏlˈəgōsēnˌ [key], third epoch of the Tertiary period in the Cenozoic era of geologic time, lasting from 38 to 24 million years ago. More of North America was dry land during the ...

Ashbery, John

(Encyclopedia)Ashbery, John, 1927–2017, American poet, b. Rochester, N.Y., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1949), Columbia (M.A., 1951). Among the most acclaimed and influential American poets of his era, he was (1960s–70...

securities trading

(Encyclopedia)securities trading, financial activity involving transactions of property such as stocks, bonds, commodities, and currency (see securities). Although the trading of stocks and bonds dates back several...

Silurian period

(Encyclopedia)Silurian period sĭlo͝orˈēən, sī– [key] [from the Silures, ancient tribe of S Wales, where the period was first studied; named by the British geologist R. I. Murchison], third period of the Pal...