The Rev. Philip Lindsley came to Nashville in 1824 to rescue the struggling Cumberland College (now University of Nashville). What he brought with him was a great vision: to create “a center of learning and civilization in the midst of the Old Southwest.” He pictured a group of academics, similar to those depicted in Raphael’s…

A century and a half ago, Athens was a humble, forgotten city of about 8,000 people. Today, one out of every three Greeks packs into this city of over 3 million. The city is infamous for its sprawl, noise, and pollution. For a long time, my advice was to see the big sights, then get…

“A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea,” wrote Benjamin Disraeli in 1844. “Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.” Every year, over 6 million travelers visit the sprawling city named…

ATHENS, Greece—It’s only the size of a shoebox, carved with the broken-off foot of an ancient Greek goddess. But Greece hopes the 2,500-year-old marble fragment, which arrived Monday on loan from an Italian museum, may help resolve one of the world’s thorniest cultural heritage disputes and lead to the reunification in Athens of all surviving…