Religion
Cathedral of creation
Sometimes, it pays to rediscover what’s already under your nose. I’ve been umpteen times to the Natural History Museum but…
A clash of creeds
This is a very modern novel. Terrorist atrocity sits side by side with the familiar and the mundane. Where better…
His dark materials
Randy Newman is already struggling to keep up with himself. His dazzling new album, Dark Matter, was written before the…
His dark materials
Randy Newman is already struggling to keep up with himself. His dazzling new album, Dark Matter, was written before the…
Deus ex machina
Mark Zuckerberg says that Facebook could be to its users what churches are to congregations: it could help them feel…
In praise of Advent
The first Sunday of Advent is 27 November this year. For those of us who prefer Advent services to Christmas…
Losing faith
A landmark in national life has just been passed. For the first time in recorded history, those declaring themselves to…
The death of the funeral
I mourn for the traditional ceremony
Let’s renew the EU
There is more to the idea of Europe than narrow economic considerations. The Remain side needs to say so
The price of a cathedral
Deans are facing tough decisions to keep their beautiful buildings in good order
Pride and prejudice
Jonathan Lynn, co-author of Yes Minister, has excavated the history of France during the two world wars and discovered dramatic…
What do all these evil maniacs have in common?
More bad publicity for the Islamic State’s ‘Kafir Tiny Tots and Babycare Service’. A burka-clad madwoman wandering through the streets…
The rite stuff
Theo Hobson explores the enduring appeal that religion has for dramatists
War on Mount Olympus
It is a curious fact that the modern Hebrew for ‘atheist’, Tim Whitmarsh notes in passing, is apikoros. The word…
Gays for God
Conservative homosexual Christians want something more radical than marriage
Organic chemistry
My old Oxford college, Mansfield, isn’t a famous establishment, though its current principal, ‘Baroness Helena Kennedy’, as she incorrectly styles…
The bad book
The decline of the Church of England has been one of the most astonishing trends in modern Britain. The pews…
Away with the angels?
John Dee liked to talk to spirits but he was no loony witch, says Christopher Howse
The great inscape
‘I am 12 miles from a lemon,’ lamented that bon vivant clergyman Sydney Smith on reaching one country posting. He…
Lessons from Utopia
Thomas More’s 1516 classic is a textbook for our troubled times, says William Cook
State of the Union
Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead…
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
During the first ten pages of this long work Paul Theroux, on a journey through the American South, meets two…
Am I a brave cult survivor, too?
When I was 21, I lived with a cult for a year. It was a commune really, a tight-knit group…
Would you believe it? A selection of ancient faiths ripe for revival
After the success of Stoicism, more ancient faiths are ripe for revival
Tricycle’s Ben Hur is magnificent in its superficiality – a masterpiece of nothing
It’s the target that makes the satire as well as the satirist. Is the subject powerful, active, relevant and menacing?…
