Jesus

What does Christian atheism mean?

27 April 2024 9:00 am

Slavoj Žižek claims to value Christianity’s ‘dissident’ credentials, but his atheist vision of reality rests on assumptions repeatedly challenged by Jesus

The many Jesus-like figures of the ancient world

9 March 2024 9:00 am

Early Christianity positively welcomed comparisons between Jesus and Socrates, Asclepius, Emperor Vespasian and Apollonius of Tyana, according to Catherine Nixey

Is the Virgin Mary being sidelined by Rome?

2 April 2022 9:00 am

The Catholic church has always venerated Mary (‘Mother of God’) above other saints. But in recent years there has been…

This comedy duo should be on Netflix: General Secretary reviewed

17 April 2021 9:00 am

General Secretary is a new drama with a dull title and an off-putting poster. A pair of angry women in…

Why Christmas sends a shiver down my spine

25 December 2020 6:00 pm

Does Christmas send a shiver down your spine? It should. We seek at this time of year to reclaim the…

Away from the manger: the holy relics of Bethlehem

21 December 2019 9:00 am

‘No crib for a bed,’ says ‘Away in a Manger’ rather puzzlingly, since a crib is a manger. ‘No one…

Thank God for western values

20 April 2019 9:00 am

Declarations of hope that Notre Dame can be resurrected have been much in evidence this Holy Week. Such is the…

Illustrated by Carolyn Gowdy

The boy who dreams: A Christmas short story by Susan Hill

15 December 2018 9:00 am

‘Wake up, boy! Wake up…’ My father was shaking me and I was confused because it seemed that I had…

‘The Agony in the Garden’, c.1458–60, by Giovanni Bellini

Bellini vs Mantegna – whose side are you on?

6 October 2018 9:00 am

Sometimes Andrea Mantegna was just showing off. For the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, he painted a false ceiling above the…

Vice and virtue

5 October 2017 2:00 pm

‘Can the ultimate betrayal ever be forgiven?’ screams the publicity for The Judas Passion, transforming a Biblical drama into a…

Mary Magdalene by Francesco Ubertini, il Bacchiacca

Mary Magdalene: all-singing, all-dancing Goddess of Light

9 April 2016 9:00 am

Many of the great faith narratives (the Holy Quran being a notable exception) are clumsy, rough-hewn things; makepiece amalgams of…

The thighs have it: George Clooney (Baird Whitlock) at his goofiest and most short-skirted

Are the Coen Brothers taking us for a ride? Hail, Caesar! reviewed

5 March 2016 9:00 am

The latest film from the Coen brothers is a comedy set during the ‘golden age’ of Hollywood and in some…

2016 will be a vintage year for tech billionaires and jihadis

2 January 2016 9:00 am

This is going to be one hell of a year, hell being the operative word. It will be the year…

The question Christianity fails to answer: ‘Who is my neighbour?’

12 December 2015 9:00 am

‘Fine old Christmas,’ wrote George Eliot, ‘with the snowy hair and ruddy face, had done his duty that year in…

Jesus sometimes plays a very long game

17 October 2015 8:00 am

We closed the last page of a gruesome, thrilling picture book called The Day Louis Got Eaten and said our…

Detail from the great and strange Altar of the Holy Blood by Tilman Riemenschneider at the Jakobskirche, Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Is this the greatest sculpted version of the Easter story? It's certainly the strangest

4 April 2015 9:00 am

In April 1501, about the time Michelangelo was returning from Rome to Florence to compete for the commission to carve…

The erotic Mary, left, by Gregor Erhart (c.1515–20) and the penitent Mary, right, by El Greco (c.1577)

No one in the Bible has been as elaborately misrepresented as Mary Magdalene

22 November 2014 9:00 am

A bogus history book and a new oratorio turn Mary Magdalene into the wife of Jesus and a human rights activist. Damian Thompson feels sorry for the poor woman

Spectator letters: On the Pope, Jesus and Mandy Rice-Davies

18 January 2014 9:00 am

Papal blessing Sir: In his excellent article on Pope Francis (‘Pope idol’, 11 January), Luke Coppen mentions the satirical rumour…

Rod Liddle: Try my new year resolution - ignore the internet

4 January 2014 9:00 am

At last, it has been scientifically proved that Jesus Christ is better than Muhammad. We’d always known that our lad…