Faith in mathematical modelling looks little more than hubris after the recent economic collapse, says Giles Fraser. The unknown cannot be so easily tamed, as any half-decent theo­logian would know.

Bankruptcy is on the increase, says Giles Fraser. There is tragedy in economic brokenness, but also hope. Debt forgiveness has the whiff of salvation and biblical Jubilee about it.

The National Health Service has continued to take a bashing in the USA, says Giles Fraser. The outrage of the religious right is fuelled by ignorance and prejudice, he argues.

Some hardline pressure groups within the church are sucking mar­riage into a narrow religious ghetto, associating it with suburban 1950s curtain-twitching, thus making it even less popular than it is now, says Giles Fraser.

Talmudic study opens the door to an understanding of obedience that does not crush the enquiring mind, says Giles Fraser. The text of Scripture, rightly understood, both questions us and affirms our questioning.

Try to imagine a world in which only things acceptable to pure reason are deemed legitimate, suggests Giles Fraser. It would be to imagine the most desperately impoverished cultural and emotional (let alone spiritual) desert.

Few words are bandied about with such casual abandon as “liberal”, says Giles Fraser. It can stand for the liberality and generosity vital to any outlook, but it can also mean an exulting of individualism and a damaging denial of inherited wisdom.

The 'freedom principle' is not some alien liberal implant into historic Christianity, says Giles Fraser. It is the essence of the Easter and Passover message.

The Cross of Christ is God's identification with the victim, says Giles Fraser. It abolishes the order of sin and death by abolishing sacrifice, not sanctifying it.

We got suckered by Fichte’s freedom fantasy, says Giles Fraser. The credit crisis is a reminder that, however clever we think we are, we cannot escape the limitations of reality.

The idea of preparing for death makes sense, says Giles Fraser. In a society that fears dying it has taken a reality TV celebrity to remind us of what is truly important in negotiating mortality.

The slums of West Africa and of Mumbai are a reminder that the world's horrors are immune to pieties and romanticism, says Giles Fraser. What is needed is compassionate action.

The Church of England's General Synod produces the headlines, says Giles Fraser. But this is not the true church. They are somewhere else, trying to make a real difference to the world.

Growing up does not always come with age, says Giles Fraser. Many people are little more than moral babies, well into their 30s and 40s. Real growing up is a moral business, concerned with over­coming infantile self-obsession.

In the grey zone, we are all both victims and perpetrators, says Giles Fraser, who has visited one of the major sites of the slave trade. In the grey zone, morality is no longer simple. We need honesty, wisdom and divine mercy to face the facts hopefully.