Culture and Review - All Categories

Fur and feathers challenge tarred politics

Simon Barrow — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:27:53 +0000

These days it isn’t just anxious looking MPs and peers, lobbyists, civil servants, journalists and security officials you’ll find wandering near Westminster, says Simon Barrow. Among other unexpected visitors have been Batman, a troupe of clowns, Basil Brush and his foxy friends, a group of zombies and a super-sized duck home

Poetry, tears and religion

Michael Robbins — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:11:44 +0000

Several of the greatest poets in the English tradition from the Renaissance onward have sought to replace God with the human imagination, says Michael Robbins. They have succeeded and failed in interesting ways.

Prayer for the non-pious

Henry Morgan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:35:01 +0100

Many people have lost touch with ‘institutional religion’, but not with spirituality. Henry Morgan explains how people’s passions and everyday experience can reconnect them with the God they already knew, and with prayer as a natural, integrating, liberating activity.

Living without a goal?

Simon Barrow — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:04:05 +0100

If watching football is a waste of time with redeeming moments, much the same could be said about prayer, says Simon Barrow. In a world over-attached to achievement, we lose sight of the fact that what is really 'worth it' is often not conventionally 'productive'.

Resetting the American faith dialogue?

Martin Davis — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:37:16 +0100

Both believers (not least evangelical Christians) and non-believers are having a hard time pinning Barack Obama's faith down, says Martin Davis. This is because he is redrawing the dialogue about religion in the US.

Pistol packin’ padres

Simon Barrow — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 02:55:29 +0100

Guns in church show that whatever is said about trust in God, it's really the threat of violence that we are trusting, says Simon Barrow. And this contradiction opens up a rich vein of satire against our patently false gods.

The artistry of faith in foment

Simon Barrow — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:20:25 +0100

A cruciform tree, a radiating Cain eyed by a simmering Abel, and a doveish floating vision: these are just a few of the images you will see as part of the vital but little-known Methodist Art Collection, says Simon Barrow.

Unnatural acts?

Melissa Conroy — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:12:06 +0100

‘Men-women’ have become the criminalized ‘homosexuals’ of Senegal, a ‘gay’ man is left unburied, and the transsexual teenager lives with the medical diagnosis of ‘psychosis’, writesMelissa Conroy. So what is 'normal' and what part does religion play in defining it?

Books, architecture, enlightenment... and global development

staff writers — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:26:20 +0100

A celestial atlas by Scottish amateur astronomer Alexander Jamieson, dating back to 1822, is a star item at this year's Christian Aid charity book sale in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is one of the largest sales of its kind in the world.

In The Loop... Fake Hawk Down?

Alan Wilson — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:33:09 +0100

Imagine a world of soundbite politics where the machinery of power is operated by vacillating professional politicians, out of their depth, jumping to the whims of ruthless, feral spin doctors. That, says Alan Wilson, is the film satire In The Loop

Dreaming an unexpected dream

Hannah Kowszun — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:57:41 +0100

How many assumptions do we make about other people, on a daily basis, for no other reason than experience, bigotry and lack of imagination? Hannah Kowzsun has her presets challenged by Susan Boyle.

Recovering wisdom from the desert

Simon Barrow — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:13:18 +0100

Theologian Janet Soskice has written a fascinating book about the discovery of one of the most ancient Gospel manuscripts. It reminds us that to understand the search for meaning in the present we have to value the past properly, says Simon Barrow.

Re:Creation is a dream realised

Andrea Stephens — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:06:21 +0100

The great tradition of the biblical oratorio lives on, says Andrea Stephens. Retired URC minsiter Derek Wensley has his full-length work Re:Creation performed at St John's Smith Square in April 2009.

Religulous ends up going in circles

Deirdre J. Good — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:34:53 +0100

Bill Maher's movie Religulous manages to laugh at nutty believers and caricature religion, but it doesn't actually tell us anything or indicate any learning, says Deirdre Good. It takes us in a circle - but not a hermeneutical one.

The greening of the Bible

Simon Beard — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:14:14 +0000

The Green Bible, reviewed here by researcher Simon Beard, illustrates that the message of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures is concerned not just with human beings but with the whole earth.