Religion

What’s so dangerous about this book about the Church of England?

6 February 2016 9:00 am

The decline of the Church of England has been one of the most astonishing trends in modern Britain. The pews…

‘If ever there was a Renaissance Man, John Dee was it’: from ‘The Order of the Inspirati’, 1659

John Dee thought he could talk to angels using medieval computer technology

16 January 2016 9:00 am

John Dee liked to talk to spirits but he was no loony witch, says Christopher Howse

The confessions of Gerard Manley Hopkins

9 January 2016 9:00 am

‘I am 12 miles from a lemon,’ lamented that bon vivant clergyman Sydney Smith on reaching one country posting. He…

Map of the Island of Utopia, book frontispiece, 1563

Even Corbyn would find Thomas More’s Utopia too leftwing

2 January 2016 9:00 am

Thomas More’s 1516 classic is a textbook for our troubled times, says William Cook

The shocking truth about the English and the Scots: they agree

12 December 2015 9:00 am

Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead…

Paul Theroux returns home — to guns and evangelism

12 December 2015 9:00 am

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?

12 December 2015 9:00 am

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

12 December 2015 9:00 am

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

12 December 2015 9:00 am

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

5 December 2015 9:00 am

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

28 November 2015 9:00 am

Amen corner Digital Cinema Media, a company which distributes adverts to cinemas, refused to allow an advert which involves the…

Standing figure of the ancient Egyptian god Horus, wearing Roman military costume, 1st–2nd century AD and Seated figure of the ancient Egyptian god Horus, wearing Roman military costume, 1st–2nd century AD

Egypt: where gods are born and go to die

29 October 2015 9:00 am

Tom Holland on Egypt, where the deities were born and history itself began

How God could save Jeremy Corbyn

26 September 2015 8:00 am

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

Photograph by Charles Sturge

Remembering P.J. Kavanagh

19 September 2015 9:00 am

OBITUARY

Millions of us honestly don’t know what our duty is to migrants – and Christianity doesn’t help

5 September 2015 9:00 am

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

29 August 2015 9:00 am

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

18 July 2015 9:00 am

Justin Welby wants the C of E to focus on growth – and he’s enlisting bankers to help

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is greeted by Pope Francis during the Ordinary Public Consistory at St. Peter's Basilica in February (Photo: Franco Origlia/Getty)

Benedict XVI leaves Rome to deliver a coded message to his supporters

11 July 2015 9:00 am

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

4 July 2015 9:00 am

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

20 June 2015 9:00 am

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

20 June 2015 9:00 am

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

13 June 2015 9:00 am

England’s churches are in deep trouble

Original sin makes us better people. I wish Muslims believed in it

11 April 2015 9:00 am

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

11 April 2015 9:00 am

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

11 April 2015 9:00 am

As I swink in the field of Thatcher studies, this book brings refreshment. It is a welcome and rare. Far…