Public life demands ‘tough’ corporate attributes rather than what it labels ‘soft’ personal ones – like love and gratitude. Simon Barrow argues that the communal cultivation of loving relation is needed to help redirect the official anonymity of the social order.

Protestants in Germany are recalling the life of George K. A. Bell, an Anglican bishop who opposed the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler but also sharply criticised indiscriminate bombing of German cities during the Second World War.

A pioneer in the global study of the phenomenon of fundamentalism, commentator and scholar Martin E. Marty reflects on the changing patterns of religious life as they have impacted Europe recently.

Have many American Christians forgotten the distinction between discipleship and partisanship, asks Martin E. marty, looking at some authors who unpack the complex relationship between Christian faith and political reality.

'A love genuinely lived by a people joined to Christ for the sake of the world' is how Simon Barrow defines the mission of the church. It is about something more transformatory than projects or agencies alone, he says.

At the root of death-dealing religion and ideology is fear, says Simon Barrow. The biggest challenge we face today is how to challenge cultures of death from within, replacing the logic of the sword with an invitation to life.

The church looking for ‘God slots’ in relation to culture is like religion seeking a ‘God of the gaps’ in relation to science: a huge mistake. The Gospel points us elsewhere.

Reflecting on his Iraq captivity, the Christian peacemaker says he has no regrets – except the pain it caused his wife and others