Culture and Review - People and Power

Giving up Establishment for Lent

Simon Barrow — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:35:23 +0000

The natural presumption of Establishment insulates the Church of England, says Simon Barrow. Even worse, it takes the opposite direction to Jesus, who rejected worldly power in the Temptation that Christians recall during Lent.

Advent in a time of AIDS - Calendar

agency reporter — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:53:21 +0000

As well as preparing worship resources for World Aids Day the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. has this year put together an excellent Advent calendar of daily readings, pictures and meditations. Many of the meditations are written by people living with Aids.

Salaam Bethlehem - looking beyond the wall

associate writer — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:08:11 +0000

Salaam Bethlehem is touring in the UK throughout the season of Advent with performances until 22 December 2007. This is the story of a production which highlights the situation of a famous city and today's Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

Open secularism meets open religion

Simon Barrow — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:48:34 +0000

The debate about religion in public life is often cantankerous, says Simon Barrow. But a constructive new pamphlet on secularism from the Humanist Philosophers' Group shows us that a better standard of discussion is possible.

Making sense of religion in America

Jonathan Bartley — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:49:53 +0100

Those hoping that when George W. Bush departs the Oval Office, religion will accompany him are likely to be disappointed, says Jonathan Bartley, if a book by the former Guardian religious affairs correspondent is right.

The church outs itself on homosexuality

Martin Reynolds — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:05:25 +0100

The outing of Vatican high-flier Monsignor Tommaso Stenico in a secretly filmed TV sting offers a real insight into the struggle the Roman Catholic Church is having in its home country over homosexuality.

An unsettling Gospel – Rowan Williams on Jesus' trial

Alison Goodlad — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:37:14 +0100

Alison Goodlad revisits a book which is fast becoming a Christian classic and discovers that the most famous trial in history is as much about the incapacity of a world like the one we have constructed to comprehend the love of God, as it is about why Jesus stands before Pilate.

How Islam can challenge those who abuse it from within

Simon Barrow — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 11:33:55 +0100

An easy assumption that religion is less dangerous when it is 'less religious' is wrong, says Simon Barrow. As an article in the International Herald Tribune points out, the path from death to life is found within as well as beyond each tradition.

Manchester Cathedral mounts its charger

Simon Barrow — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:36:59 +0100

What is really at stake in the row between Sony and Manchester Cathedral over a violent video game? Simon Barrow looks at it in terms of Christendom, 'redemptive violence', image as commodity and the onset of the hyperreal.

Why St George is no crusader

Garth Hewitt — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:19:46 +0100

Far from being a crusader, St George of Lydda was a defender of the powerless, says Garth Hewitt. He is a figure for Muslims, Jews, Christians - and for the church in Palestine.

Living in apocalyptic fear

staff writers — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:07:01 +0000

The real problem of Islamism as a violent mutation within the Muslim faith is not well addressed by feeding ourselves paranoid fantasies

The peacemaker as dissident

Simon Barrow — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 13:23:17 +0000

Norman Kember’s experience as a hostage in Iraq is part of a journey of dissent from the supposed logic of violence

Bible Bashers Bashed by Jonathan Bartley - The Guardian, 25th February 2006

Press Office — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 17:35:30 +0000

Jonathan Bartley reviews Jim Wallis' book "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Doesn't Get It" for the Guardian newspaper