Pope Benedict XVI and the Orthodox ecumenical patriarch Bartholemew are seeking to put differences aside in order to encourage a growing global vision of Christian unity in a divided world, using St Paul as an exemplar.

Some sections of the Anglican Communion are convinced that only their narrow vision of what is permissible in faithfulness to the Christian message is adequate, says Simon Barrow. But they are confounded by the biblical texts they claim loyalty to.

The modern temptation is to dismiss resurrection as fantasy or reduce it to spiritualised sophistry, says Simon Barrow. The shape of the core Christian hope is both more substantial and more subtle than that.

Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, has said that Christians should give priority to unity in the global Week of Prayer that runs from 18-25 January. He also commended a peace message from St Augustine.

Turkey's Catholic community wants to mark the 2000th anniversary of the birth of St Paul by improving the status of the country's Christian minorities, as well as reopening a church at the apostle's birthplace in Tarsus.

Christian faith is about sustaining faith in face of the knowledge and reality of death, says Simon Barrow. The feasts of All Saints and All Souls put us in solidarity with a host of people who have struggled to see right prevail.

Simon Barrow asks how we can regain and sense of proportion, love and justice in arguments about the Bible and many other things in church and public life.

New Testament scholar Deirdre Good explains why simplistic appeals to scripture distort its meaning, and why for the Gospel family is built on magnanimity not exclusion

Johan Maurer asks what we mean by spiritual experience and mysticism