Religion
Paul Theroux returns home — to guns and evangelism
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?…
The Maldives: sun, sand and fanaticism
Suddenly, the Maldivians are in the news. Earlier this year, they locked up their first democratically elected president, and just…
The many fights over the Lord’s Prayer
Amen corner Digital Cinema Media, a company which distributes adverts to cinemas, refused to allow an advert which involves the…
Egypt: where gods are born and go to die
Tom Holland on Egypt, where the deities were born and history itself began
How God could save Jeremy Corbyn
If Labour’s atheist leader could show he was at peace with religion, it would go a long way to making his job more secure
Remembering P.J. Kavanagh
OBITUARY
Millions of us honestly don’t know what our duty is to migrants – and Christianity doesn’t help
Proximity shouldn’t make a difference — should it? We were on a beach on the European side of the Mediterranean,…
Edinburgh Fringe highlights: world-class improv, Bible study and an hour with a gentle genius
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical offers a brand new song-and-dance spectacular at every performance. It opens with a brilliantly chaotic piece…
God’s management consultants: the Church of England turns to bankers for salvation
Justin Welby wants the C of E to focus on growth – and he’s enlisting bankers to help
Benedict XVI leaves Rome to deliver a coded message to his supporters
Quietly, discreetly, the Pope Emeritus is offering a different vision to that of Pope Francis
Sorry, but you can’t take the Islam out of Islamic State
At last, British politicians have been galvanised into action by the appalling events last weekend in the Tunisian resort of…
In being suckered into climate alarmism, the Pope risks backing policies that hurt the world's poor
In his latest encyclical Pope Francis will apparently describe global warming as a ‘major threat to life on the planet’.…
It’s amazing how many different subjects Sir Thomas Browne’s latest biographer doesn’t care about
On the evening of 10 March 1804, Samuel Taylor Coleridge settled at a desk in an effort to articulate what…
2067: the end of British Christianity
England’s churches are in deep trouble
Original sin makes us better people. I wish Muslims believed in it
These days, on the subject of Islam, non-Muslims have mostly divided into two camps — though there’s a little wandering…
Why Pope Francis could be facing a Catholic schism
It’s not just Vatican infighting any more. Pope Francis has a potential schism on his hands
Did Mrs Thatcher ‘do’ God? Denis thought so, and he should know, says Charles Moore
As I swink in the field of Thatcher studies, this book brings refreshment. It is a welcome and rare. Far…
What happened to Julie Burchill on silent retreat
What I discovered on a silent retreat
Allah, Zeus and the Church of England
A ‘prominent liberal cleric’ in London has held an Islamic prayer service in his church, St John’s Waterloo. ‘We all…
Tell Mama and the battle for the future of British Islam
Is there a future for a moderate activist group fighting anti-Muslim prejudice?
Why did the House of Lords ever have a rifle range?
Gun lords The House of Lords shooting range is to be turned into a cupboard, having previously survived an attempt…
It takes a village (or six): the battle for rural churches
Can England’s 10,000 rural churches survive?
