Religion

Let’s vote ‘in’ to renew the EU, says Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor

7 May 2016 9:00 am

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

26 March 2016 9:00 am

Deans are facing tough decisions to keep their beautiful buildings in good order

Patriotic Traitor finds dramatic gold in France’s interwar history

12 March 2016 9:00 am

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?

5 March 2016 9:00 am

More bad publicity for the Islamic State’s ‘Kafir Tiny Tots and Babycare Service’. A burka-clad madwoman wandering through the streets…

Act of faith: Sybil Thorndike as Saint Joan, c.1924, in George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Saint Joan’

Why does drama always end up sneering at religion?

5 March 2016 9:00 am

 Theo Hobson explores the enduring appeal that religion has for dramatists

The sacrifice of Iphigenia: Agamemnon’s crime was ‘impious’, according to Lucretius

What did the ancient Greeks believe?

27 February 2016 9:00 am

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

20 February 2016 9:00 am

Conservative homosexual Christians want something more radical than marriage

Why is the organ such hard work?

13 February 2016 9:00 am

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?

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