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Culture and Review

  • 9 Oct 2012
    Disorganised Religion? We need more of it

    Drawing on a public conversation at Edinburgh’s Festival of Spirituality and Peace on the theme ‘Disorganised Religion’ earlier this summer (2012), Michael Marten reflects on the nature of religion and the way it is morphing, changing and being challenged in the contemporary era.

  • 9 Oct 2012
    Indigenous colonial texts: conversion and subversion

    In written documentation from colonial times many indigenous authors are not victims only, but innovative individuals, bringing together their own belief forms with Christian traditions and thus creating genres and contents of their own and for their own objectives, says Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar.

  • 26 Aug 2012
    Football, politics and religion: beyond division

    The final Festival of Spirituality conversation and Civic Cafe, The Power of Youth and Football to heal a Divided City, proved extremely rewarding, writes Katie MacFadyen. The issue of dealing with sectarianism and bigotry is something that should involve all of us.

  • 22 Aug 2012
    A feast of Scottish poetry... for Africa

    Money for agricultural development in Africa will be raised this week by performances from Scotland's finest poets, as well as some of the country's most significant new poetic talent. Katie MacFadyen looks at the line-up.

  • 18 Aug 2012
    Navigating Atlantic diversity and beyond

    Aizzah Fatima recently brought her controversial and stimulating one-woman play 'Dirty Paki Lingerie' to these islands for the first time, following a highly successful run in the United States. Katie MacFadyen reflects.

  • 13 Aug 2012
    Experiencing a spirituality festival as a secular Humanist

    Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh (3-27 August 2012) is an Interfaith and intercultural event; there are Jewish, Islamic, Christian and Daoist events, for example, as well as artists from every contintent but Antarctica, reports Katie MacFadyen. But what is the relationship between 'interfaith' and 'no faith'? Where do Secular Humanists fall in this atmosphere of inclusivity?

  • 9 Aug 2012
    Africa in Motion Film Festival: 'Our Friend Death'

    Three films, one continent, three different takes on death, dying and loss. The Africa in Motion Film Festival, in collaboration with the Festival of Spirituality and Peace and the Edinburgh University Global Health Academy, is presenting a trilogy of films from Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon - plus one native Scottish short - linked by the challenging theme of 'our friend death'.

  • 8 Aug 2012
    A thoughtful evening with dementia

    The recent performance at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace of 'An Evening with Dementia', a one-man play written and performed by Trevor T. Smith, was followed by a fascinating discussion led by Professor June Andrews from the University of Stirling, says Katie MacFadyen.

  • 13 Jul 2012
    Bible museum planned for Washington DC

    A large-scale Bible museum will open in Washington DC within four years, Adelle M. Banks of the Religion News Service reports.

  • 11 Jul 2012
    Heritage group decries destruction of sacred Mali mausoleums

    The UN's World Heritage Committee has condemned the destruction of mausoleums sacred to the Sufi strain of Islam in the African nation of Mali.