Religion
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…
Britain really is ceasing to be a Christian country
A landmark in national life has just been passed. For the first time in recorded history, those declaring themselves to…
The slow (and ignominious) death of the British funeral
I mourn for the traditional ceremony
Let’s vote ‘in’ to renew the EU, says Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor
There is more to the idea of Europe than narrow economic considerations. The Remain side needs to say so
The price of a cathedral – and how deans pay it
Deans are facing tough decisions to keep their beautiful buildings in good order
Patriotic Traitor finds dramatic gold in France’s interwar history
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…
Why does drama always end up sneering at religion?
Theo Hobson explores the enduring appeal that religion has for dramatists
What did the ancient Greeks believe?
It is a curious fact that the modern Hebrew for ‘atheist’, Tim Whitmarsh notes in passing, is apikoros. The word…
What conservative gay Christians want
Conservative homosexual Christians want something more radical than marriage
Why is the organ such hard work?
My old Oxford college, Mansfield, isn’t a famous establishment, though its current principal, ‘Baroness Helena Kennedy’, as she incorrectly styles…
What’s so dangerous about this book about the Church of England?
The decline of the Church of England has been one of the most astonishing trends in modern Britain. The pews…
John Dee thought he could talk to angels using medieval computer technology
John Dee liked to talk to spirits but he was no loony witch, says Christopher Howse
The confessions of Gerard Manley Hopkins
‘I am 12 miles from a lemon,’ lamented that bon vivant clergyman Sydney Smith on reaching one country posting. He…
Even Corbyn would find Thomas More’s Utopia too leftwing
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
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
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
